


TWIN MOONS

by Zag_Star



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Angst with a Happy Ending, Drama & Romance, Enemies to Friends to Lovers, F/M, Falling In Love, Idiots in Love, Passion, Reylo Charity Anthology, Romantic Comedy
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-25
Updated: 2019-04-30
Packaged: 2019-12-07 11:31:34
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 8
Words: 46,266
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18234290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Zag_Star/pseuds/Zag_Star
Summary: Rey and Ben live in their own world after the Crait battle, but they keep thinking about each other and rejecting each other until Leia asks Rey to go on a mission to bring her son home...





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [@ZoeXanthellae](https://archiveofourown.org/gifts?recipient=%40ZoeXanthellae).



> This story was written for the anthology Reylo Charity Antology. I would like to thank everyone who participated in this charity initiative. Special thanks to @ZoeXanthellae for your help and friendship in every work I do. 
> 
> This story is a romantic REYLO fairy tale. I hope it will make you laugh, dream, and cheer your time.

#  **Twin Moons**

** _“Nothing is easier than self-deceit. For what every man wishes, that he also believes to be true.” Demosthenes_ **

#  ****

** _Really thanks to_ [ _@mrsmancuspia_ ](http://mrsmancuspia.tumblr.com/) _for this Beautiful image. It was FANTASTIC!_ **

#    
**Chapter 1**

 

There is a moment as Ahch-To's suns rise, in which the light seems to hang in the arms of the night, a magical moment when anything could happen. Creation holds its breath and looks around. Even the stars, in silence, observe the golden glow that takes the place of darkness; but the darkness never goes away completely, it simply shifts, waiting till nightfall to meet the embrace of the day once again.

 

It was a morning like every other on the island of Ahch-To.

 

The dawn sky was illuminated by the twin suns alone as they rose high in the sky.

The sun's rays hit Rey's hair, making it glow. The whole mountain appeared incandescent, glowing with magnificent reflections of gold and crimson as the suns lit up its heights.

Finn looked up, searching for his friend. He brought a hand to his forehead, noting the small figure hanging from the top of the mountain.

 

From under the rocky peak, where Rey was anchored, the former soldier screamed loudly and pointed to her position. Of course, it was not easy with the dawn’s glow that blurred the view but Rey, tied to the safety rope, still seemed to understand his gestures.

 

"I got it!" She shouted, turning to her friend. He raised his arm so the message was clear and Rey watched as Finn tried to communicate with the base. "Do not go," yelled out the former storm trooper, shaking his head. Then he looked up to the right of the mountain, where he could see Poe’s X-wing hovering in the air. From the cockpit of his X-Wing Poe tried to stop in flight just above the boulder, to allow Rey to hook it up to his ship with a cable. It didn’t seem like an easy operation, because the kyber crystal they were trying to remove interfered with the transmission frequencies of the small-hunter's equipment. Poe moved used his manual controls and continued the anchoring operations, as they had planned to do before leaving.

 

"Poe, we can go!” Cried out Finn, holding on to the rope that kept him safely on the mountain. He raised both arms in the direction of the pilot and Poe knew immediately that it was time to try to hook the boulder with the straps.

 

A large asteroid made of kyber had crashed on the top of Ahch-To's highest peak. Its strong link with the Force had generated an enormous magnetic field, so strong it interfere with communications, both those internal to the atmosphere of the small planet and those that allowed the Resistance to remain in contact with the rest of the universe.

 

 

"Be strong, Rey, fix the ropes!" Poe said, screaming in the direction of the girl hanging on top of the mountain, as if she could hear him. His modified X-Wing seemed in perfect position to pick up the small kyber boulder and move it to the base. A group of scientists there would take care to turn the precious stone into an invaluable source of energy, perhaps using it as the energy source for a weapon. A weapon would be very useful now that the Resistance was trying to respond to First Order attacks.

 

A year after the Battle of Crait, the Rebellion was seeking new allies to respond to the First Order's attacks. Organa's message had not gone unnoticed and every day someone knocked on their door, every day other planets joined the Resistance to fight the First Order. New lenders offered to pay for the purchase of new weapons or to inflate the fleet with new technological means necessary to continue the war.

For this reason, they could not afford the interruption of the transmissions.

 

That big rock, fallen from the sky, had to be moved as soon as possible but they had to be careful: a kyber of that size was not a trivial thing to handle. Only a user of the Force, thanks to his connection with cosmic energy, would be able to move it without dying or destroying it.

 

Organa, in this regard, had never shown doubts. In front of Resistance leadership, she had immediately indicated Rey as the solution.

 

The remaining Resistance leadership had immediately called a meeting to discuss the situation. Gathering together around their circular boardroom table in an expanded stone hut, the mood in the room had been serious and worried. The darkened lighting caused by interference from the kyber crystal on the electrical systems had only heightened the somber situation. But in this regard, Organa had never shown doubts. Before listening to any advice from other Resistance generals, she promptly indicated Rey as the only solution.

 

"This is a perfect mission for our little Jedi," she had said with conviction.

 

Rey blushed, not expecting such trust. Suddenly everyone turned to look at her thoughtfully. Nobody spoke but she had felt uncomfortable. Somehow their looks conveyed their thoughts: can this girl, coming from nowhere, manage to use the Force successfully? Would she be able to do it without harming herself, without hurting everyone else on Ahch-To? And what would happen if the power of the kyber crystal corrupted her by making her go to the Dark Side? This had been known to happen, and there were some who were doubtful already.

And if she was to fall into Darkness, like Organa’s son - would she turned to the enemy?

Rey started to sweat. The discomfort was quickly turning into worry.

She knew it was not easy to understand the power of the Force for those who did not have the time or energy but it was true that every time, for one reason or another, her ability to use the Force ended up the center of attention, and it seemed to her that everyone was afraid of her; maybe even saw her as a monster.

 

The only one who really believed in her was Organa. Sure, there were her trusted friends: Finn, Rose, and Poe, but besides them, everyone else mostly avoided her because probably out of such fear.

 

Rey was not sure if she would succeed in this venture. Since Luke had disappeared, she was now the only person on the Light Side of the Force, and moreover was  without a teacher.

 

Oh yes... There was still one other Force user in the galaxy she knew of, someone whom Rey had tried to save, someone for whom she had risked her life, delivering herself to the Dark Side for him, but her plan hadn’t worked.

Kylo Ren had continued to dominate the First Order, and had given up neither his ambition nor his attachment to the Dark Side, despite all her efforts. Indeed, after killing Snoke he had merely taken the Supreme Leader’s place. Rey was deeply disappointed by his choice. If she thought about it too deeply, it hurt her inside in a way that she couldn’t quite understand. So she chose to ignore such thoughts. Sometimes, though, the memories would creep into her mind despite her best efforts.

 

When they touched each other, the pads of their fingertips brushing gently together, they both saw a shared future.

A future in which they loved each other and were happy, a future in which there was no war and everyone loved him.

It would not have been impossible for him to have accepted her offer. They would have killed Snoke and he could have returned to the Resistance, to his mother, to his uncle. To his family.

 

Perhaps it would not have been easy to be forgiven for all the crimes that he had committed, perhaps he would have served a few years in prison, but most likely he would have been pardoned if he had helped the Resistance restore peace. If he showed himself to be loyal, perhaps, he could have taken a military role and fought next to his mother or even next to his uncle like a Jedi - if only he had come back with her... even if, thinking about it, even if he returned before the battle of Crait, he would not have become a Jedi anyway.

 

She had clearly seen how they married and had children only that the Jedi, as everyone knew, did not have children and did not marry. The Jedi lived as priests devoted only to the Force. And this could never change. But the thing, the only thing that had been constant in their every vision in the force was that they would be together as husband and wife. They would have loved each other. Maybe for a minute or maybe forever, this part was not clear. The dream always stopped when they hugged and were happy. Perhaps knowing the next part was not so important, or maybe the Force would have shown them later, perhaps.

 

But now, those images had to be only unrealizable dreams or fantasies.

Projections of broken hopes that were reflected by the Force. There was no other explanation, because she could not forgive him for his choice. A year, a whole year had passed since she had tried to save him, since she had come to believe he would rebel against Snoke to follow her. And indeed, a part of her visions had proven true: when she had stood before Snoke, and he had tried to kill her, Kylo Ren had stood up to defend her, killing his own master. The strength necessary for Kylo Ren to break free from Snoke’s control had been more than clear at that moment.

 

She had felt such a strong emotion when he gazed at her after killing his dark master, an emotion like agreement - sympathy - or perhaps a bond that silently grew louder. Seeing Kylo's face full of anguish and his heart aflame had left her breathless. He had done it for her and they both knew it. After fighting the Praetorian guards, she felt even more secure that he would follow her. It would all have been easy from there. They would have escaped together and somehow started over again together, but his reaction had thrown all her unspoken dreams and desires out the windows, wishes she didn’t even know she’d had till the possibility of their existence was extinguished.

 

Kylo Ren did not want to come back. He had never been a prisoner of the Dark Side, but rather a voluntary guest. When she realized the alliance, they had made was just a pretext for Kylo to kill Snoke, he had broken her heart.

Ben Solo had become one with Kylo Ren and it was true, yes, he wanted her... but on his side. A part she could not accept. One side she could not follow. So, after fighting for the sword, awakening first in the throne room, she had decided to leave him. She could not kill him, but she could not even stay with him. She had to leave to save the friends he would have killed.

His intentions became even clearer in the battle in Crait, where only Luke's intervention had saved them. He would have killed everyone and now that she no longer needed anything, now that Snoke had died... he would have killed her too.

 

For this reason, she had decided to forget that agreement. Their happy image with so many children around was just an illusion. He would have never loved her, it was only a dream, maybe it was he who had convinced her that it could happen, but now a year had passed. If he wanted to change his mind he would have done it and instead nothing had changed.

 

After the battle of Crait the bond seemed broken, like her heart, but after a short time, incredibly, it was rekindled.

 

They often met, inside the bond of force, pretending nothing. They had ignored the other for so long that they had even forgotten why they had even begun to ignore each other. Then one day he started to look at her and address her. She remembered it well because, the first time he had decided to tell her something, she was sick.

 

She had injured herself by fighting a marine killer Osee, believed to be living only in the sea depths of Naboo, but a larger and more aggressive variant had attacked a fishing boat in the sea of Ahch-To. She had intervened hoping to be able to stop him with the Force, but instead the monster managed to bite her in an arm before she, clinging to the dark side, managed to react by hurling him against the cliff.

 

The fishermen had taken her from the water just in time before she drowned.

 

She was not sure, but as she floated in the sea she felt herself suspended, as if someone was holding her. She had opened her eyes on the boat. The fishermen stood around her and gave her first aid, but she didn’t look at them. She could only see him completely wet, slapping her face in despair. He spoke to her for the first time, after months, he spoke to her: "breathe Rey, breathe..."

 

She opened her eyes, feeling the salty drops dripping from Ren's hair on her face.

 

She was not sure if they were sea drops or his tears. For some unknown reason she woke up with him bent over, trying to make her regain consciousness.

 

He had retired to his knees only when she opened her eyes and started spitting salt water. They had looked at each other for a long time as they resumed breathing.

 

Then, forgetting her intentions of not speaking to him, she yielded: "Did you save me?" It was a fisherman who answered first.

 

Kylo Ren had disappeared, but since that day, whenever the Force allowed him, he spoke to her.

 

He asked her questions and demanded answers, wanted to talk about various topics and pretended to be heard. He accused her that she had never given him a chance to explain his reasons and often screamed, or destroyed everything around him though, with time, he had stopped such destruction. He was holding back. Perhaps he had understood that this aggressive way would not lead to anything, he would only get on her bad side and make her turn to the other side. It was not what he wanted. So after having tried everything, he had started reading.

 

It seemed like a ridiculous thing, and yet had to admit that it was the only thing they shared with pleasure. Even the Force seemed to understand it because it gave them more time. She was calm when he read and often closed her eyes pretending to remain in meditation, instead rocked in the low tone of his voice as if it was music.

 

And he enveloped her in reading. At the beginning they were books about the Force, then he had passed on to scientific treatises on the links between living beings seeking affinity with their condition, but in recent times he had again changed strategy. He read poetry written by authors of every age. For some reason, had realized that the poems calmed her down. He saw that she was listening to them as if they could put out the fire and the rancor that it carried in her heart. He watched her and occasionally interrupted the reading to see her reaction.

 

She always pretended to be indifferent but he realized she liked those readings, so sometimes he kept quiet until she made a gesture. Initially, he was content with a beat of eyelashes to continue reading but over time had become increasingly demanding, as the poems were increasingly intense.

 

He stopped at the best moment and waited for her to react. Rey could hardly show her interest and yet she had to do it if she wanted him to continue, so she'd waved. Sometimes he nodded his head but always with his eyes closed, pretending that he was not there, until the day he stopped reading them.

 

He was reading a poem that spoke of love. She did not know how they had come to such matters but she justified herself by saying that she was not the one who chose them and that she could not avoid feeling them because of the bond but it was not true.

 

They both loved that subject. She liked to hear the tone of his voice change, almost break between words. Every word seemed like a wave breaking on the rocks and she pretended to be impassive but she was sure she was the rock that broke them. The sketches of their thoughts like a wave of the sea bathed them both and she wanted to know.

 

She wanted to hear the end of the story, but he did not continue. He stood still staring at her, not talking. He remained motionless with the book in his hands for days. She felt his breath close to her and saw him open the book and always repeat the same question: "Do you want me to continue?"

 

He felt his heartbeats failing the day she decided to look at him to answer him.

 

Something must have moved within her, because she felt her stomach leap as if she was falling, while in her chest her heart beat with a mixture of excitement and terror. She didn’t understand why, but both seemed almost out of breath, after a year of fighting silently, they looked at each other in the eye again. Her legs shivered like gelatin and he jerked slightly.

 

A jolt made her heart tremble. An emotion so intense it incited her to stretch a hand towards him. She watched him as her hand nervously moved towards him. He had spent a year tormenting her because she was addressing him but shuddered like a baby chick at the idea of contact.

 

Rey almost smiled as she saw his eyes panic as she crossed the space. He looked up to see her as if he were looking for an answer to her question. She did not know where she got the courage, but she nodded her head and he turned his gaze back to her hand.

 

For a moment he remained suspended. He took off a glove as if he were stripping off everything he was wearing and she felt once again how hard it was for him to show his frailty, normally hiding every inch of skin.

 

It had been that sweet move that had made her leave the first time. And now, after a year, somehow, she could not avoid giving him another chance.

 

Ben opened his lips as if he were about to touch something flammable, his breathing became more intense. She continued to stare at him as if to give him courage, but when her hand was next to his he looked up and it was at that moment that their fingers touched again.

 

The tumult that followed that touch tore through all her defenses. Suddenly she felt naked in front of him, as she could perceive him as a whole. A confluence of energy and spirit that totally permeated her. Though his hand did not falter, he held her tight as he closed his fingers in hers. The touch of the skin was so light she could hardly feel it. But it was enough to make her shudder out of control.

 

His gaze crashed into her own tumult. She opened her lips, letting him look at them like a mirage. Their hands tightened like a chord and somehow the Force encouraged them to move forward.

 

She could not say any more if it was him or her who tried to pull closer, but somehow, they had moved and had gone beyond a handshake. Their legs now touched. They were both on their knees and wondered what was the Force was asking for.

 

It was a question that could not be answered, because at that very moment Finn entered to her room. Rey turned to answer him, but when she came back to Ben, to get his hand back, his image had vanished and days passed before she saw him again. Days that inexplicably became weeks. Weeks that without reason turned into absence and need, a need that became anxious waiting, a waiting that turned into anger. Anger that led to impotence and resentment and, without a plausible reason, Rey became convinced that Ben had returned to the dark side.

 

The noise of the straps, hanging from Poe's X-Wing, caught her off guard. How could she be distracted with those thoughts while on a mission?

The belts swung and moved the hunter down. Rey saw them dangle over her head. She jumped but couldn’t grab on to anything. Finn threw himself at her as one of the hooks hanging from the straps, coming back, hit her head. Finn dived into the void to prevent one of the hooks from striking her. His body dangled from Poe's aircraft. At that moment the girl realized that both her friends were shouting in her direction.

 

" Of course! I have to lift the boulder!” she repeated aloud, raising a hand. She then concentrated on recalling the Force.

She closed her eyes and remained motionless, looking for the energy. It was inside her, the light had always been there. The rays of the binary suns alone went through her and she felt even more immersed in the Force. The noise of the essence of light echoed in all its fragments, the energy responded. The enormous kyber meteor moved.

 

Rey returned her concentration to the big boulder and levitated it again. Poe was safe, but while Rey was trying to secure the big kyber, another rush in the Force made the crystal slam against the mountain top. It would have been a just a scratch if the crystal hadn’t been charged with energy.

 

On contact with kyber, the mountain broke in all directions. Poe had time to regain control of his X-Wing and fly above them with the crystal swinging uncontrollably, swinging in all directions and causing more landslides each time it smashed into the mountainside.

 

Finn and Poe began to scream louder for her to do something.

If she could not stop the landslide they would all be dead: she and Finn overwhelmed by the boulders and Poe brought down by the big kyber not yet completely attached to the belts.

 

Rey concentrated more on the Force, but inside she screamed in terror.

 

She tried to feel the energy, for she knew how to use it, but sometimes she felt she could not control it and wondered if she would ever learn without a teacher. At that moment it was a question that she no longer had time to ask herself. She had to react, she had to do something, anything, but her mind seemed stuck. Her heart throbbed so loudly that the noise stunned her.

 

Finn screamed desperately, while Poe tried to keep his X-Wing in one place but it was all terribly difficult if Rey did not help them. Poe wondered if the Force was an energy that she could control. He cried at seeing his friend frozen still. It had been madness to ask her to face such a large endeavor. Poe had been worried but Organa seemed convinced. Now they would all die for believing a false hope.

 

Rey saw the landslide continuing to fall; there was no more time to escape, she had to use the Force, so she concentrated, trying to tame her fear. A dull noise in the light, a dark spot appeared in her mind. The point became bigger as the landslide loomed toward them. A dull and broken noise echoed in her head, like a fracture in the essence of all things. A whistle in her ears, a flash of light, and he appeared before her with wide eyes, a boy dressed only in black: Kylo Ren.

 

"Rey." His voice pronounced her name slowly as if it were a prayer. His gaze stripped of his grudges and sleepless nights thinking and waiting for her, leaving his face with the features of someone who is happy to see her, almost reassured.

 

Yet his gaze changed immediately by looking around. He looked again at her petrified and immobile. He saw the traitor screaming in despair and the pilot who he had tortured trying to hold an X-wing with a big, partially tethered kyber crystal that slammed in all directions, and then he saw the landslide that was about to overwhelm them. If Rey did not react they would all die. A wave of panic raged in his mind. He had always been skilled in emergency situations, showing such clarity as to come out unscathed from any situation, but now it was different. It was she who had to do something. Perhaps he would have managed to slow down the landslide, but blocking it seemed impossible.

 

"Rey, you have to react!" He told her to place himself in front of her, but she almost did not listen to him. "Rey, use Force!—" She did not seem to see him. He approached, trying to get her to move. The landslide was almost on them. There was no time. He got behind her, enveloping her with his body, a hand slipped around her waist and Rey flinched. Without thinking, Kylo Ren completely closed the gap, letting their bodies touch each other. The girl's breathing hitched dramatically and he, almost on the point of melting and throwing himself in front of her on his knees, approached his face to Rey's ear, speaking in a choked voice. He stretched his arm over hers, flexing it to allow their hands to squeeze together.

 

The Force vibrated so strongly in their bodies that it crossed through them like a flame. A flame that made Rey almost tremble and moan as if, in the sole contact of their skin, he could somehow grasp her and take her beyond her imagination.

 

Their energies flowed as if they were rivers running towards the sea. The dark energy and strong carnal possession that he emanated merged in her with the clear light of her transparent being as if they were colored waters. They cleaned and dirtied each other, but in the meantime - it worked.

 

Even though the bond made her tremble like a flag in the wind, the landslide had stopped. Slowly, with their combined strength, the crashing boulders of the landslide went back up the mountain, as if a tape was being rewound. The hooks were closed by themselves, moved by invisible hands, rendering Poe’s X-Wing stable and making it take flight with the big kyber crystal.

Finn screamed with joy, trying to reach his friend still standing on top of the mountain. His eyes widened as a light-colored energy mingled with continuous red waves that made matter melt. In a few minutes the top of the mountain was repaired, as if the landslide had never happened,, but Rey remained motionless with her hand raised, because she had not moved from that contact.

 

He continued to stand still with his hands intertwined and his face buried between his neck and Rey’s hair that moved by the wind. Rey was not sure but a shiver made her even think that he had dared to put his lips on her skin. Just the idea of what he could have done made her tremble. She let the air go as if she had been holding it for centuries and he did the same, but feeling his breath only added further torment. A torment that soon began to give her strange indications, like how his erection was touching her back, or the position of his other hand wrapped around her abdomen and her breast. If she had moved even a millimeter, she was not sure what her reaction would be. She wanted to know. She turned to look at his face knowing he was bending over her.

 

He stood up to his full height when he saw her turn. He let go, freeing her. But Rey was not sure he did it out of malice or just out of despair when, finding himself facing each other, he realized how he looked at her lips.

 

Rey thought back to how she knew him. She had long since realized that he was afraid of contact and now Rey found him almost lost in need of it, sore and covetous, staring at her lips ready to break, in a semi-liquid form, like a wave against a cliff. Rey wondered what she really wanted. If she wanted him, it was time to take him. Suddenly realized that he was one step away from giving her anything. There was no need for him to speak because the bond was so strong that could sense all of his thoughts and disturbances or the pain he felt inside as he tried to keep his temper. But despite this, Rey knew that she too could not hide anything from him.

 

Her underwear was certainly drenched by desire and, as an animal stalking its prey, she knew that he perceived her like a predator. He felt everything about her that neither of them would ever admit. There was little to hide. They stood looking more anguished than when she was about to die under a landslide. They remained motionless in that shared strength and weakness as if they could decide in that instant the fate of the whole universe.

 

They continued to look at each other as if days or years passed and their breath was completely missed when Kylo bent over, as if... he wanted to kiss her and she closed her eyes waiting to feel the contact, but instead…

 

Only a few seconds passed, just enough time for Finn reached the summit. He found her motionless, her back to the mountain, her face up and her lips half open. He put a hand on her shoulder and let his friend melt in a desperate cry against his chest.

 

Kylo Ren was gone.

 

*

 

When Rey and Finn returned to the village, all those present rushed to hail them and celebrate them as if they had saved the planet. Rey no longer felt as if everyone was watching her strangely. People kept staring at her but their faces seemed happy and confident. Everyone was sure of how her light had allowed the success of the complex operation. Everyone sang and laughed, even Finn and Poe almost felt like heroes; everyone celebrated... everyone except her: those last minutes in the bond had changed something.

 

That mixture of shared energies had begun to give her a strange torment and she did not know if it was from tasting Dark Side or for wanting to surrender into Kylo's arms. Certainly, some balance had been broken since he’d held her. An alteration in the Force that had struck both.  If she eben just closed her eyes, the warm sensation of feeling wrapped in his arms came back to her. A feeling that resembled a desire. A wish that she could not give a name to, but a solution came to her: she had to talk to him and clarify everything. She wanted to tell him that she had been stupid and that he should never touch her ever again, but the bond remained silent.

 

Days and days passed that then became weeks and she wanted was to talk to him and tell him many things, above all she wanted to say that they had to go back to not talking, just as they did at the beginning. Unfortunately, without the help of the Forcebond, there was no way to tell him.

 

Then, to pass the time, she tried to meditate or read the poems aloud, hoping that sooner or later he would appear but nothing: only silence. Only the echo of her voice while she spoke alone. She wondered if he was thinking about what had taken place between them too.

 

Rey absolutely needed to tell him that she did not want to see him - or maybe the exact opposite!

 

It was terrible to have all day to think, alone, about something she wanted to share with him. Thus, she became increasingly nervous. So nervous that, by dint of waiting, she had so much pent up frustration that she ran into the woods and let it go. It was so much that with the Force she destroyed an entire boulder. She believed that no one would see her but instead a fisherman saw her from the sea.

 

When he returned with his boat he told his wife and she told it to her friends and after a few days, all over the island, the story had grown into something terrifying: Rey had divided a planet into two. Now, everyone was afraid.

 

She tried to justify herself when she was called before the Resistance veterans' council and her friends; Finn, Rose and Poe had tried to defend her justifications, but it was useless. After a short time, she was listened to by a team of psychologists and after weeks and weeks of forced interviews the doctors came to a conclusion.

 

Rey was a little intimidated when, once again, she was summoned before the Resistance veterans' council, and Leia herself spoke, taking away any doubts:

 

"My dear Rey, sit down here in front of the assembly." Rey sat down but despite knowing that Organa loved her like a daughter, that decision, made by a group of unknown people, left her feeling scared.

 

Organa looked at her with a smile. Perhaps what she was about to say would not be so bad. "Rey, you are our only and last Jedi. We all need you and we all love you. "

 

The girl turned to see everyone's face, and strangely everyone was smiling; then she turned to look at the princess, who was waiting for her attention to resume talking.

 

"The council, after consulting with the team of doctors, has decided to give you a mission." Rey jumped on her chair. "A mission that you will do yourself," Leia said, waiting to see her reaction, and Rey smiled, despite herself: she had not expected this strange proposal.

 

"Our doctors believe that you have lived on your own for so much of your life that the continuous stay immersed in the dynamics of a small city is making you nervous."

 

"That is not true!" Rey replied, getting up from her chair. "I'm happy with you, I'm happy to be among people. For the first time I..." The girl turned around, looking for her friends’ eyes. Finn and Poe smiled at her from afar and Rose waved a hand in her direction. "I feel at home, in a family." Rey turned again to look at Rose while Organa smiled happily at her words.

 

The General spoke again. "Rey, we are sure of this, but there is something else: The doctors believe that you need to test your ability to use the Force. For that reason, you will be alone, but we will be in touch with you and we will be ready to help you in case you need us."

 

Rey looked at her, perplexed, but Leia continued to smile at her. "We all think that you are ready to take the Jedi oath, but we also want you to be convinced of your strength. What do you think about it?"

 

"The Jedi oath?" Rey repeated in a loud voice and for a moment she remembered every time she had dreamed of kissing Kylo on the mouth and was sure that she was not always just dreaming, she thought about it as a wakeup call… alternating this thought with that of telling him never to speak to her again. She had to admit it… her head was confused. Perhaps the team had really understood her problem.

She turned around, looking for the comfort of her friends, but when her eyes met Finn's, she saw that he was making signs to tell her not to accept it. Poe also shook his head sideways. Rey's eyes widened, she was now confused. But Rey felt that perhaps she did need in some way to prove to herself who she was, that she was strong with the Force, that this twist in her journey through life was not a fluke and that she was where she was meant to be. 

 

Rey turned around, staring at Organa forcefully. "Ok, I agree to leave; what is the mission? "

 

Everyone remained silent. Leia began to explain.

 

Rey would have to go to Canto Bight: a coastal city located on the deserted planet of Cantonica, famous for its casinos, luxury and Fairer races.

 

She would have two weeks to get in touch with [ Abednedo Slowen Lo ](https://translate.googleusercontent.com/translate_c?depth=1&hl=it&prev=search&rurl=translate.google.it&sl=en&sp=nmt4&u=http://starwars.wikia.com/wiki/Slowen_Lo&xid=25657,15700022,15700043,15700124,15700149,15700168,15700186,15700189,15700201&usg=ALkJrhhguvm5HUFDw5oLhnlHvcjuYXpGiQ) , a well-known businessman who had become a millionaire, apparently selling wooden sculptures but who in reality was a well-known smuggler, as astute as he was capable in the weapon selling business to all kinds of factions.

Rey would have to find him to conclude a very delicate affair to bring a new flagship to the Resistance and a large supply of weapons.

 

It didn’t seem like an impossible mission after all. He was waiting for her in a casino.

 

Rey's only doubt was how she should disguise herself in order to not be recognized by the forces of the First Order. After what happened in the throne room with Kylo Ren and Crait's escape, she was certain that the First Order had put a price on her head.

 

At that point, an old officer explained to all those present the details of their plan. In the next two weeks a wonderful carnival would be celebrated on the planet Cantonica. People would go around dressed in disguise night and day. Millions of tourists would invade the streets full of luxury and excess. Given the increased an unrestricted tourism during the carnival, Canto Bight would be the best place to conclude a secret deal.

 

A mask would be enough for her to sneak into the various casinos looking for the “businessman.” Unfortunately, they did not have photos to show her a specific place. Abednedo Slowen Lo always acted in the shadows, giving few instructions. This is why she was the right person to complete the business. Rey would find him with the help of the Force. Only one detail would help the girl recognize him in her disguise: A brooch in the shape of a flower.

 

Rey looked down and then stood up, reassuring herself. "I accept the mission."

 

Everyone present stood up, applauding her words. For a minute, she truly felt confident.

 

*

 

The journey to Canto Bight was faster than expected. When they arrived at their destination, Rey watched Chewbacca as he carried her baggage to the ground. She had brought practically nothing, but the Wookie had insisted on accompanying her to the village, continuing to bombard her with millions of recommendations mainly aimed at hypothetical males who somehow, for reasons not entirely clear to her, would have liked to take advantage of her.

 

"Chewie, don’t worry, I'm the last Jedi, no male will do anything to me!" Rey said a little impatient, but the Wookie continued to stay with her for hours before leaving her alone and leaving again to hyperspace.

 

One last hug and the girl stood alone on an unknown planet. She wondered if she had made the right choice.

 

She walked the streets of the marvelous maritime city, remaining amazed and enraptured by the beauty of the place. Millions of aliens and humans ran and jumped while inebriated, others walked showing off their masquerade dresses of such luxury that Rey pondered if she should rob them of their robes and sell them on the black market: surely from their sale she would have made so much money to feed a whole galaxy.

 

The noise continued to stun her during the time that she remained in the streets, so she went looking for rest for her eyes and ears diverting from the main streets along the less frequented promenade.

 

With fewer people on the horizon, it was possible to enjoy the breathtaking scenery. It was fantastic. Rey had never seen such a lovely place. Everything was beautiful and glistened with magic and perfection.

 

Every corner concealed glimpses of the sea and wonderful works of art.

Sea, rocks, the sweet and enveloping inlet that set the harbor, the beautiful luxury buildings that perfectly matched the colors of the landscape. Everything seemed perfect and while she thought about it, the sound of the sea began to call her.

 

The moon furrowed the horizon, reflecting itself stubbornly on the surface of the lagoon. Scents of flowers, salt and sea leaves caressed her face.

A warm and light wind crossed her senses until it lingered in a hopeless thought: it would have been a beautiful place to fall in love.

 

Drawn in by the sweet sound of the waves, she looked over the terrace that looked over the biggest artificial ocean in the Galaxy.

 

It may have been artificial but it’s still carried a smell that reminded her of the lovely salty smell she had sented on Ahch-To.

 

The waves moved by the wind at sunset brought her that sense of infinite emptiness, the one she felt on that precipice in the height of her feelings, when on top of a rock on Ahch-To, the Force had connected her to Kylo Ren.

 

For a moment, she thought she could save him.

That pain still burned a lively fire in her mind, frying her heart in starry nights and in all those she tried to sleep and she felt it.

 

In some ways, the bond was muffled by their last meeting. Rey could barely see his image fading when only the rays of light rose on Ahch-To. That time she opened her eyes and then his figure completely disappeared. Just as she could feel it in the first light of the evening, when the twin moons appeared high in the starry sky: in those moments she was the one who turned around, perceiving his presence. Yet they couldn’t talk to each other. It was as if the Force itself had been offended and decided not to connect them longer than a simple vision.

 

So, it had been a year since she had last seen him on Crait and she still hadn’t stopped thinking about it. Waiting to talk, Rey had reflected on her whole life and in particular on her failures. She had fought, she had hoped to save him from the dark side. She even managed to believe that he would change.

 

When they found themselves on the verge of kissing, she had felt Kylo Ren's heart certainly explode into millions of pieces and knew that she would collect them all to have him, as he would have given her anything if she had asked for it. Inside that magical moment, she had really hoped that he would turn to the light side, for her, to stay together.

 

Instead the time and its continuous silence had given another answer.

 

Perhaps it was Kylo who created and blocked the bond, she didn’t know it, but the anger that formed inside her generated by his absence was such as to merit revenge. He had not come to light in any way. He had remained to rule the universe like a fierce dictator. She would have no choice. If they met again, she would have to kill him.

 

Who knows what was he capable of...

 

Rey turned her face to the other side, ignoring the sound of the sea that pronounced her name. She no longer had to think about him. He was just another broken dream. Perhaps the worst. A dream that she managed to avoid by day, but at night, the night was something horrible.

 

Every time she came back to her bed, every time she saw his face as a mirage, every time the Force connected them for a moment, her heart beat heavily. There was no way to avoid it. Just seeing him excited her.

 

An emotion with which she had begun to fight. However, in any corner of space he had dragged all his stupid bones, it was now weeks that she no longer felt it. The bond had further weakened. Probably he had perceived her distance and had closed the connection, or had found as expected, more to do. Other scavengers to torment...

 

Who knows.

Anger seethed in her veins.

She no longer had to think about it.

 

Rey left the terrace overlooking the sea to go to the hotel that the General had told her. Leia had reserved a room for her for the entire operation. She would be staying there for two weeks, or at least the time to conclude the deal with Abednedo Slowen Lo. If only she could find him.

 

 

Perhaps Organa overestimated her Force ability. Although, in retrospect, finding a man in an unfamiliar city did not seem like a Jedi business. Perhaps they had only moved her away to meditate on what she wanted and now, far from everyone, the question became clear in her mind: did she really want to become a Jedi?

 

A whistle in her ears and Rey found herself in the path written in the note Leia had given her. The photo matched the landscape, that means she had arrived to the hotel she was looking for.

 

Rey looked at the building. It was an average hotel, neither too luxurious, nor too modest, it easily went unnoticed.

 

Hotel of the Stars and the Sea.

 

A small building on the sea.

 

A simple linear structure made of red limestone bricks.

Inlays of blue corals drew a flowered tree on a wall. The same bright blue sea and half-open shutters were moved by the wind.

Even the central door looked blue. In the large glass, from which the Hall was accessed, the colors were reversed. The transparent and opaque blue glass revealed the hologram of a large red tree made of corals.

 

The spray of the ocean coming from below the sea terrace, right in front of the hotel, hit her face. She smiled.

 

“Sea and Stars Hotel”.

 

“What a nice name” Rey thought as she entered the hotel.

She neared the desk, smiling to the young hotel manager that stared at her attentively.

 

“Good day I am Rey of Jakku and I booked a room in your hotel” Rey accompanied her words with an insecure smile.

 

“Show me your documents please…” The alien answered as he stared with his three large green eyes. His three eyelids surrounded his pupils closely.

 

Rey grabbed her papers and showed them to the large orange alien that stood behind the reception.

 

The alien bore a nametag “Ciri Biri Biri “he scrutinized her ID card, looking at it and then at the girl back and forth.

 

The alien switched on a few communication channels, flickering his eyes with his three eyelids and making numerous strange sounds that to the untrained ear would have even sounded like squeaks.

 

Rey began to feel herself sweat, she couldn’t understand why the alien was taking so long to look at her ID, when suddenly as she moved to take a look at what was shown on his screen, she saw a photo of hers with written:

 

 

“- Wanted, dangerous interplanetary terrorist. Any witness is required to seek contact with the First Order and avoid any aggression. She is armed and dangerous.-“

 

Rey’s heart skipped a beat.

 

 

“- A generous reward will be given to anyone able to provide any information to the First Order. Possible reward given for her capture, dead or alive. –“

 

Rey felt herself die a little inside.

 

The squishy orange manager was going to call the police before even talking to her.

 

Rey grabbed her staff ready to hit him, while he turned around with a blaster ready to attack, he hoped to get her by surprise, after all, the instructions from the Supreme Leader where clear: “Dead or alive. “

 

Those words continued to ring in her ear, like a nightmare.

 

Was this the result of their sharing the Force? Did he just want to capture her to eliminate the problem? “Dead or alive”: it appeared in the hotel's holos. The idea that he felt something for her was just an illusion. This was what the Supreme Leader really wanted. "Dead or alive" kept repeating in her mind, an offense. Her anger seethed. If only she thought back to all the nights she had wished that the bond would not stop just when he was about to kiss her. At that moment it was really evident how stupid she was and how much she had deluded herself. He had never been good, he was just an enemy. An enemy who wanted her dead.

 

A drop of sweat from the alien with the blaster in his hand made Rey return her mind to what was going on.

 

How would she get out of this...how? She had been on this planet for less than five minutes and they had already discovered her.

General Organa would be very disappointed.

What a mission! She had not even managed to rent a room.

 

The alien could sense her hesitate.

Even with a trembling hand, he shot more out of fear rather than conviction. To him, Rey was certainly not any worse than the lords that he had watched walk up and down from their luxury airspeeders. Their faces changed, but their substance, the corruption and evil of most of the planet’s visitors remained the same. They were all of ill repute.

 

A shot left the blaster aimed in her direction, Rey dodged to avoid it.

She had been discovered. She could hear the sirens of the police in the distance rushing to the hotel. A total failure. She had to leave. She felt that all was lost when the uniformed officers entered the hotel, blasters drawn and aimed at her.

 

Not just one, as many as five red dots moved around on her chest. She was under fire.They were going to capture her. What was she supposed to do? Should she use Force? Run away? Perhaps, if she used the Dark Side, she could throw them all to the ground at the same time. Maybe... and if it did not work? Perhaps her destiny was not to kill Kylo Ren, perhaps her fate was to die in her first mission, how stupid...if it were not...

 

If it were not...

 

Suddenly a dull sound echoed in her mind, a gash in the Force, his unmistakable signature. She could not believe it; the Force had decided to connect them again just when she was about to die.

 

What a disgraceful defeat.

 

She closed her eyes, surrendering to the rain of blows that would pierced her shortly thereafter. She had decided not to kill all those people, perhaps she had not been properly trained, but she knew that sacrifice was the principle of a Jedi. The Supreme Leader would have his victory, she would die like a martyr, renouncing to defend herself in order not to hurt anyone.

 

Perhaps… she could still respond in time. She opened her eyes looking for a new strategy. It was at that moment that she saw a gloved black hand grab a bullet that had been shot due to the overwhelming enthusiasm of a policeman behind her. The force of the bullet would throw her back.

Perhaps she was going to die.

She felt the warmth of the small metal object stop just a centimeter from her spine before it exploded, shattering away from her. Not a single shard of shrapnel pierced her..

 

Two frightened eyes. A dive to the deepest heart. How the hell was it possible?

 

 

Kylo Ren, in his incredible black suit, stopped the shot aimed at her direction in the air.

 

She turned incredulously to look at him. As in slow motion all the weapons fell to the ground at the movement of his hand. Using the Force, Kylo had blocked every shot that was about to hit her. Incredibly, he had saved her.

 

She looked him in the eyes and almost jumped at his own expression of anguish. It was not because of the weapons that bounced against the floor or the incredulous looks of everyone present, it was not out of fear, nor was it because she had been inches away from dying. There was something in the air that vibrated more than any connection. The look of Kylo Ren made him look fearful and fearless at the same time.

A whirlwind of emotions swirled in the Force as if there were no other people in the room besides them.

 

She looked at him while his pupils were bending to look at her from every direction, as if he was looking at her for the first time in a thousand years, as if he was rebuilding her image after having dreamed it endlessly, while she was content to scrutinize his eyes without speaking. In any case, breathing without feeling anything was already a great achievement. Did Kylo Ren sense her emotions?

 

Why was he staring at her like that? They hadn’t talked for months and it had been weeks since their last encounter thanks to the Force. She believed that he wanted her dead and instead, instead...that semi-paralyzed look spoke more than a thousand words.

 

The agitation lapped all over her body like a freshly lit fire and finally she felt the butterflies. Why was she feeling butterflies in her stomach? Rey couldn’t understand it, but yes! There was that strange emotion in that fraction of time that separated her from life, death and the encounter with the last person with whom she would have liked to come across in the whole universe.

 

There was no need to ask too many questions because his presence had lit their bond in the Force and now it vibrates inside her, like the rails below a train going at full speed. "Oh kriff!" Rey thought, trying to hide her thoughts inside the Force bond. What was she supposed to do?

 

He stared at her, as if in adoration of her image, blocked and distant, but his eyes: his eyes devoured her like those of a man who was dying of hunger. Perhaps he had not voluntarily closed the bond, or perhaps he had regretted it. Rey, looking at him from a distance, could perceive his thoughts, his desire for something without a name. She felt it on her skin as tight as a dress.

In a bizarre twist of fate, the words of the Supreme Leader echoed in the environment at the same time she doubted his intentions. He had saved her, but now? What would he do now that he was so close to her? Would he kill her?

 

Rey sighed, watching his features change. She turned to look at the policemen inside the room and the hotel manager. They had all left their place to surround the Supreme Leader. Everyone had recognized him and had let go expressions twisted by fear. The situation seemed to have changed considerably because everyone was smiling now in front of the most famous and important character in the galaxy.

 

It was at that moment that the most absurd thing happened. Kylo Ren, instead of fighting them, returned the smile. He ignored his desire to lighten them with the Force and went to shake their hands. The Supreme Leader was shaking hands with everyone present, policemen, guards, the hotelier and even the cleaners and all the curious people who were drawn into the hotel lobby to understand what was happening.

 

Rey squinted, more and more stunned. All those present looked at Kylo like a movie star, and he stood there, without an escort, in a poor suburban hotel. He who could have everything and instead was there for...

 

It was the question everyone was asking themselves as they turned to look at her...

 

It was at that moment that he heard the most absurd words of her whole life....

 

“Darling, why didn’t you tell me you were planning moving up your arrival by a day?”

 

Rey spun around with wide-eyed, bewildered eyes. What the hell had her ears heard? Kylo Ren was saying those words at her… Was he even more crazy than usual, or what?

 

All she could do was grimace. Her right eye began to fall prey to an unstoppable tic. Her hands began to shake. Rey didn’t know if it was the fear, the excitement, or the joy of seeing him again.

 

With her wide eyes open, as if facing a nightmare, she met his gaze.

She didn’t think she would ever see him again. She didn’t want to know, she couldn’t even know what she was feeling, but judging by the intense gaze, it was very similar to the state of a madman, and he too was trying to realize that same thing.

 

Rey watched him lose a beat at the same instant when she, too, stopped breathing. Her heart was beating wildly as if every possible emotion had decided to mix in her head and perhaps a certain sense of confusion also permeated her body.

 

A drop of sweat began to slide down her face.

Anxiety mingled with the pleasure of seeing his tall, dark figure again. She felt in the Force that his apparent calm hid an emotional storm while he spoke cooly with the police.

 

“All is well,” Kylo Ren said to the police officer. “I am Prince Ben Solo, this is my fiance, dressed up as that Jedi Killer. It’s dress-up and makeup.”  Kylo Ren said again: “Yes, yes she told me she was called Rey of Jakku… How cheeky…”

 

Kylo turned to her with the same threatening smile as someone who is about to commit murder.

 

"Honey, I told you to bring your documents." Kylo Ren came over as if he were about to touch her. "I know that you love dressing up in those bizarre costumes, but doesn’t it seem risky to pretend to be the girl who murdered our Supreme Leader? It’s a joke that could end in a tragedy… Fortunately I was right behind you to prevent you from getting hurt..."

 

Rey's jaw dropped down in surprise.

 

Rey looked at the man dressed in black, motionless in front of her, as if watching a flock of porgs lift a spaceship: it was simply impossible! Maybe she was just dreaming. It had been months since she had seen Kylo Ren and now he was in front of her blocking gunshots aimed at her… it was not possible… and now Kylo was pretending to be her boyfriend, no, her fiance?

 

Rey rubbed her eyes even harder, then squinted hard, trying to process the scene in front her. Her expression changed into millions of forms, trying to make sense of that absurd situation.

 

And while she was looking for a rational answer to understand what was happening, Kylo Ren took control of the situation. In a few moments he cleared the cops who left with a big tip in their hands and millions of excuses. While the manager, sweating profusely, rushed to look for the reservation for the Prince's  and his "particular" girlfriend.

 

With a gesture of Kylo’s hand and a little trick of the Force, the young manager was able to believe anything that the Dark lord was able to slip into his mind.

 

"Mr. and Mrs. Solo, here is your reservation."

 

 

The alien nodded with a mortified smile, while Rey, with her eyes wide open, was shouting curses through the Force bond. Kylo turned his eyes to her as her lips moved in a strange grimace full of agitation.

 

Rey winced as she looked at his face. The words "girlfriend", "reservation", "Mrs. Solo", began to spread across the surface of her brain, obscuring everything. The trembling hand of Kylo who signed the documents accepting the room made her understand that he too was not as calm as he seemed.

 

The alien spoke to her in a reverential tone, still a little frightened by what for him was one of the most illustrious guests in the whole galaxy.

 

“Miss Solo, there was no need for you to dress in this manner, you gave me such a fright!”

 

Kylo's eyes, so close to fixing on her, suddenly revealed the tons of hatred he had been hatching against her during all this time of silence and lack of answers.

 

And now?

 

What was she to do, run, face him, kill him? Nothing. For now, she had to pretend as though nothing was amiss because the young chubby creature who worked at the front desk had decided to accompany them to their room, continuing his insufferable grunts and squeaks.

 

The alien led them to the elevator. Rey grabbed her bag but Kylo took it from her. Maybe he wanted to be a gentleman like Chewie, maybe he wanted to pretend he was a good boyfriend. She would not give him anything.

 

In a short time, they found themselves pulling their only bag inside the elevator. They were pulling at it so hard that in a short time the kindness turned into a challenge. They stopped only when the alien, intrigued by the strange sound of clenching teeth, turned to look at them.

 

They followed him with feigned indifference as he advanced through the hotel corridors towards their room, but when they arrived at the door they looked at each other as if they were going through a hurricane. They were going to a hotel room to sleep together. The situation had definitely changed. Light years from the mission that Leia had given her. Millions of universes away from finding an answer to her question: "Do I want to become a Jedi?"

 

But at that point, Kylo Ren assumed that unmistakable half smile. Perhaps he had felt her fears, or perhaps he only wanted to exorcise his anxieties when he answered her. Ren's hand advanced, stopping around her arm as his face bent to allow him to look into her eyes.

 

Rey’s heart plunged when she realized he was shortening his distance to a point of no return. Her body began to tremble as the boy's lips opened to insinuate his answer:

 

"Are you wondering if you want to become a Jedi? I think that together we can do better... "  
 

* * *

**Writer corner:**  
  
Please feed the inspiration fairy with a kudos or comment.  
If you want to read this story in Italian and English click here. <https://efpfanfic.net/viewstory.php?sid=3816502>


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Rey and Ben live in their own world after the Crait battle, but they keep thinking about each other and rejecting each other until Leia asks Rey to go on a mission to bring her son home...

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For @ZoeXanthellae.  
> This story was written for the anthology Reylo Charity Antology. I would like to thank everyone who participated in this charity initiative. Special thanks to @ZoeXanthellae for your help and friendship in every work I do.
> 
> **** 
> 
> This story is a romantic REYLO fairy tale. I hope it will make you laugh, dream, and cheer your time.

Chapter 2 (English)

 

Rey felt her heart vibrate with an unexpected shudder as the alien opened their room.

 

She could not believe she was putting herself in such a situation. She and Kylo Ren alone, in the same room, made her think of all the uncomfortable outcomes she would rather avoid. She recalled the desire she had incubated for months. Finally, she could tell him in person to not talk to her again: never again!

 

She looked up to meet his eyes. A strange warmth on her reddening face made her aware that he was staring at her. She thought they would fight with their swords when the door closed on them, but the encounter with him was warm, a torn look made her vibrate in an unexpected turmoil. A new shiver shook her body as she saw a strange glint in her enemy's eyes. He did not look like a man about to fight... at least not with the sword.

 

Rey widened her eyes, shifting the focus of her gaze. She moved away from that strange proximity that was, almost, upset and moved so that the innkeeper stood between them. So, as the innkeeper ranted about in the most logorrheic description of the room, she looked around to analyze the room.

 

It was a small, unspacious room. If she was planning to fight him with a sword perhaps she could manage if she stood on the bed, that was the freest space in the room. All around was wood. A desk, wardrobe, bedside table, shelves and drawers that were arranged in a linear fashion around the room.

 

Beyond the bed and the wooden furniture there was a little bench made of battered wood.

 

“You will be sleeping there,” Rey indicated the bench to Kylo, letting him catch onto her disgust for him with her nasty smirk.

 

The young man responded with a flame in his eyes. He moved his eyes back to the alien. The hotel manager had not stopped talking. Kylo began to reevaluate his desire to kill him before he perished from the creature’s breath.

 

The holographic TV was switched on.

The screen showed images of Rey with a sword in her hand… the late beloved Supreme Leader Snoke’s service was being blasted across the planet’s wavelengths at full volume.

 

The alien director opened all three of his eyes once again filled with surprise, but this time it was Rey who blotted out his memories and replaced them with something new…

 

“We are two siblings, give us two single rooms, you hear me? S i b l i n g s!”

 

“I’m terribly sorry, Miss Solo but we only have this room left… you know it’s carnival time and things get so busy…” Rey growled out of anger and embarrassment.

 

“Dammit… we are sister and brother, do you understand?? Just siblings!!”

 

The poor alien began to feel a strong headache… Rey had decided that modifying the alien’s thoughts was the best option, though it was not always foolproof, and as he left she heard him saying “Mr. and Miss Solo Brothers,“ ignoring the shouting that had begun to come from the room as soon as the door closed.

 

As soon as the door closed, the two young enemies grabbed ahold of one another, each trying to strangle the other, hitting and pulling with the fury of madmen. Rey’s anger was so great that the height difference was of little concern. She had literally jumped to his throat and was trying to strangle him while alternating with punches and slaps every time he dropped his hands to stop protecting his face and tried to reach for her instead.

 

On the other hand, Kylo was trying to hold her still, even managing to give her two or three slaps even though he had to keep his arms raised to block her blows.

 

The room did not allow for much movement, so in order to avoid falling onto the bed together, they pushed against all four walls, into the corners, the drawers and the bedside table. The room appeared to be solely furnished with sharp wooden corners. It appeared natural to seek refuge into the bathroom hoping for more space. It appeared even normal to slip into the bathtub to punch him in the nose as Rey had managed when he shifted himself.

 

“Dammit!” Kylo cried in exasperation.

 

Rey had switched on the shower faucet, forcing him under the cold water while jumping out of the way herself. She stood outside the tub but the ferocity of her blows kept Kylo Ren from being able to get away. It was comical, seeing him trying to avoid both her fists and the water from the showerhead. She began to feel laughter bubbling up inside her chest.

 

She couldn’t help it and a small chuckle made its way from between her lips.

 

In that tiny moment, while her guard was down, he managed to flip her into the now almost-full tub, soaking her. Rey immediately jumped back up, catching herself before she slipped and fell down, and shrieked loudly at him. Then she lunged out of the tub, both of them soaking wet now, and they re-commenced trying to strangle each other until they were exhausted. There was so little room there that somehow, they both ended up back in the bathtub.

 

“I - dislike - you!” Rey said, trying to tone down her need to gasp.

 

“I - hate you! ” He responded, in an even less convincing tone.

 

There was smoke and flames in their eyes.

 

“I should've killed you when you were lying by that throne.” The girl’s features softened in a manner that was jarring in comparison to her words.

 

“I should’ve let Snoke kill you,” Kylo pushed his soaked, raven black hair aside from his face, letting the silence that followed replace any answer.

 

They were both too tired to get out of the tub. The both continued to pant out of sync with their heartbeats. They could both feel their hearts pumping frenetically, their pulses roaring in their ears. They were red cheeked and covered in bruises, with aches and pains all over their bodies.

 

“We need to buy you new clothes so you can go around unnoticed,” Kylo said as his breathing slowed and more oxygen could reach his brain.

 

Rey nodded her head. It was a yes. For once, they agreed on something.

 

A spark burned as the last form of resistance, he opened his mouth trying to articulate something sensible that was not just an insult.

Without even imagining that they had anything to say, they started talking. All without beating or hitting or trying to kill themselves.

It would have been a normal dialogue between "almost friends" if it were not that they were still half-stuck in the tub.

 

They left the hotel together, forced to unwillingly share this space and time.

They bought some new clothes in the first shop on the road.

 

Something unoriginal that would make them go unnoticed. A short tunic held by a long bottle green ribbon that wrapped around in an empire waist, together with brown leggings and a short similarly colored cape for her. A medium length tunic, midnight blue with some golden detail around the neck and tight trousers for him. A darker brown cape and light shoes.

 

They took turns to get changed in the bathroom.

Once they saw each other they felt different; they were dressed the same.

 

They had a thousand things to tell each other, words never mentioned, secret dreams, disappointed hopes, days spent waiting, forgotten promises, rancor, distrust and fear.

And yet now, neither spoke.

 

They walked along the road that followed the sea, just enjoying the image of the other in new clothes.

His eyes. Her lips.

 

Rey's stomach began rumbling, it reminded her that she had not eaten for a day.

 

Kylo lowered his eyes to look at her. She was so thin: maybe she had not been eating much for months.

 

They slipped into the first restaurant they met. No one had loved or had lived a life appropriate to their years. No time for fun, no time for distractions. Neither had any life experience of nightclubs... neither looked at the menu... neither looked at the prices, neither managed to see anything that was not the image of the other that was reflected back into their eyes.

 

Without asking questions they stopped in the first place where they saw other people eating.

 

"A table for two..." the waiter said from over his shiny dress.

"Is that right by the sea? It's very romantic... "

 

Rey frowned in a mixture of despair and a strange inner turmoil that Kylo's constant presence began to cause them. She wondered if the emptiness in her stomach she had felt for hours was just hunger. "We are brother and sister," the girl burst out with furious eyes "SIBLINGS!!"

 

“Of course, of course,”... the waiter replied, handing them a menu and lighting a gorgeous red candle.

 

Perhaps it was the flicker of the candle, of the shimmer of the light on the water, or the smell of the sea that every now and again covered them to remind her of his presence. She wasn’t sure, and yet the light reflected in Kylo’s eyes has something mysteriously magical about them. Something gripped her stomach. An anger and a strange squeeze sensation in her chest. A knot of hope tightened by disappointment.

 

Their souls for a second met during their stare. A thousand stars were no longer to be found in the sky, but in his eyes.

Panic.

 

Rey was certain that she would never be looking directly at him again. That she would never be dining with him, by the ocean, the little street, the waiter. Anyone but him, not those eyes…

 

The waiter returned. “What can I get you?”

 

Kylo ordered a steak with a side of vegetables.

She had not even looked at the menu, and ordered a couple of things at random.

The names looked unpromising...

 

After a short while the orders arrived.

The steak with side salad for Kylo and for Rey:

Bourguignonne Escargot, Baked Crab, and the crowning dish, Rognons Blanc, which was revealed to be the male gonads of some unknown herbivore…

Kylo’s amused face completed the evening.

 

Rey instantly pushed away the two yellow spheres floating in broth.

 

She tried desperately to open up the little green mollusks from their shells and remove the meat from the crustaceans, which were served whole in their shell too. She tried to somehow suck them out, but despite the unlady-like sound she was unable to free up anything. Their flesh remained firmly anchored to the shell, giving her a similar level of frustration to the level of embarrassment that Kylo felt while he apologized to the other diners for the noise Rey made from her attempt to eat the unfamiliar food. Perhaps she would have better luck trying to crack the little shells open with use of the Force…

Had it actually been a romantic date, it would have been a disaster.

 

In the end, Kylo passed over half of his steak to the starving girl, red faced and nervous, sitting in front of him.

 

She was so hungry that she would have accepted anything, except that a luxury watercraft decided to pass near their terrace, making incredible motions over the water.

 

It was fantastic.

 

Then something went wrong, perhaps an anomalous wave, perhaps a risky move, the fact being that the man who had been flying over the waves lost control. He crashed on the bank just below them, lifting a two-meter rebellious and impetuous wave that crashed right on their table, carrying away the steak, the snails and all the crabs in the undertow...

Rey managed to keep one plate upright. The Rognons Blanc remained intact. Her face blanched at the thought of having to eat what she’d salvaged. This time, it was Kylo who could not hold back a chuckle.

 

They returned to the hotel, and Kylo bought two sandwiches to eat on the beach.

 

Ren thought back to how they would spend the night. The Jedi Killer and the last Jedi in the same hotel room. It would have been impossible for him to sleep with his stranger after all that had happened between them, since the Force had bound them.

 

Maybe it would have been easier if they had talked... well, it was not exactly what his body suggested to him but his mind was still lucid: they should have been chatting or at least saying something.

 

Kylo wanted to do it. He wanted to clarify with her all that he had not been able to tell her since that damn bond had somehow forced them to share each other's thoughts. He would have spoken only of clear and coincided things befitting an obscure man. He would have explained why he had killed Snoke after all, out of interest, if she had not yet understood… Yet his body was shouting for something very different from what that part of the still rational thought he possessed.

 

She looked up at him and Ben saw that she was looking at his scar on his face.

Like an idiot, he touched it with a glove, a clear sign that he was following her gaze. The girl in front of him reacted as if she had been surprised by the stolen touch. His feelings for her, stamped across his face recalled a sense of ancestral emptiness that not even Snoke and all the training on the dark side had ever managed to turn off.

So his thoughts returned to blur. A vibration inside the bond and he returned to be abducted by something: a mixture of light in the eyes of Rey, her fragile appearance, the awareness of her strength and the link that stubbornly kept attracting him to the light: to her.

 

His mind returned to his real thoughts, those that did not make him sleepy at night: he had tried to track her down for so long...

 

And she, after enormous efforts on her part, had allowed him to enter the bond again, but only for a short time.

Despite having saved her, despite his offer, despite his tears, she had left. She had closed the bond despite the fact he had done everything to show his interest. He had changed, he had stopped being irascible and aggressive in every situation. He had learned to control himself and had done it only for her.

 

Now he wanted to know why she ignored him. The awareness of the attraction that caused the girl brought to his mind anger and resentment. Why had she closed the link?

 

He had been almost certain that they were about to kiss that day on Anch-To. When a landslide was going to endanger their life. He had held her close and had closed his hand in her, intertwining their fingers. The force had responded with an absolute energy inside the bond. It had been so powerful that it gave him a strange sense of omnipotence followed by a huge desire. Desire that flowed between their bodies. He could feel it because the contact made them one and he never thought that such a force of union could exist.

 

A transcendent union that went well beyond the solid functioning of their bodies. It was as if the same Force uniting them, but it was a matter that called them to be completed in a greater union. And they both knew it. For this she had turned to look at him on the mountain. For this he had approached his lips to kiss her.

 

Every cell of his asked to join her and he felt that she wanted the same desire. Perhaps no one said it, but they could both feel it inside the bond.

 

Then she had disappeared and since then the bond had become weaker and weaker until it had gone. That was why he had started searching for her. This was the truth. He had crossed the confines of space until he found a trace. He did not know how many people he had bribed and how many secret agents he had paid but in the end, he had come to her and now he did not want to be wrong anymore and he did not even want her to leave.

 

He knew she still feared him and had to do it all. He would have convinced her to stay on his side. This agreement was possible.

If she could listen to his reasons, he was sure, she would understand.

 

So he opened his mouth, as if he were about to tell her everything he thought. But the only thing he could say was "the cheese sandwiches are good?" He would have told her his thoughts at another time... it was just a matter of waiting for the right moment: he was sure of it.

 

They sat on the waterfront, not too close this time. But not to far. They both hungrily bit into their sandwich without speaking a word.

 

Then she gave up.

 

“Why did you do it?”

 

“Do what?”

 

“Save me…”

 

“Which time are you talking about?” said Kylo in an arrogant tone.

 

“The throne room… you could have let me die but you didn’t.”

 

Kylo hesitated to respond. “You could've let me die as well, but you didn’t.”

 

“No, I didn’t.” Rey accompanied her words with a sigh.

 

“Why didn’t you kill me?” Continued Kylo. “You didn’t want to kill me, yet you always despised me. I was unconscious, unarmed, you could've gotten rid of me… the monster everyone hates.”

 

Another sigh. “I don’t hate you.”

 

Kylo’s heartbeat skipped. A buzzing filled his ears.

 

Rey had promised herself to not look at him in the yes… but she did it anyway… the stars were still there, still confused, they reflected in his irises, brilliant open flames.

 

“So, what then?”

 

Rey’s voice became feeble and quiet like a breath of the breeze.

 

“I was waiting for you…”

 

Kylo looked at her in surprise, pretending that his last words had not, in some way, turned her head. His voice became lower, almost a whisper: "Why did you close the bond then? "

 

"I did not close the bond," Rey answered, widening her eyes.

 

Ren was silent for a moment. Then together they turned their faces to the sky. Maybe the stars could help, maybe.

Something inside their hearts told him that the tide was rising, but it was not a thought, it was the waves of the sea that pressed up to the shore, attracted by the magnetism of the moon.

 

They heard the salty waves rise toward their bodies, sitting on the beach, while their eyes shone as if lined with silver, like cats’ eyes. All the stars in the sky seemed brighter when she felt that she could hear the beats of her heart even without touching it.

 

A strange energy united them in a mixture of embarrassment and desire.

 

She stroked her lips, swallowing as she noticed he watched the gesture, following it with his eyes.

 

Rey was afraid that they would come back to kiss like that time on top of that mountain on Anch-To when she was in a panic and he had come to help her.

 

When he held her close to her she felt like home. His body gave off an intense and comforting warmth and something else of indecipherable very similar to a request, a sense of emptiness that he called to be filled and now... that strange call came back to be felt.

 

What was she supposed to do? There was no one to stop her, to save her, to stop her from yielding to the dark side that he constantly emanated as if he could seduce her, but what she did not know was that she too was doing the same, with her light and him as a moth... was dying to crash into that glow.

 

Following the trail of a falling star, Ben's eyes returned to longing for her lips. Without understanding how it was possible, she doubted that her body was surrendering to him without her consent. It was almost as if a spark fell on her cheek when he tilted his face and, holding his breath, put his warm and fleshy lips on her skin.

 

Their bodies remained rigid as Ben's moist lips rested on her face to kiss her. For a moment all his light lit up and slammed against the darkness of his essence. Rey did not know that a single kiss on the cheek could give her all that agitation. She never kissed anyone on the mouth but on the cheek, he should not have given her all that emotion and instead...

 

And instead that chaste kiss advanced and lingered on her skin with the same ardor of a burning flame. Rey took courage to look at him and saw that he closed his eyes. Her beat accelerated like a drum in understanding that, if she had not stopped him, next time he would kiss her on the lips. Would she kiss him? It was more a hope because his mouth remained motionless on her cheek, forcing her to shyly raise a hand in search of his face.

 

Ben opened his eyes, enjoying in advance for that contact and this led him to gasp and moan on her skin, but he did not back down, instead he tilted his face adjusting the direction towards Rey's lips.

 

Rey opened her lips instinctively as a subterranean heat told her that she was ready to welcome him anywhere in her body.

 

They both closed their eyes and were surprised by an anomalous wave that separated them, overwhelming them in the sea, which had grown thick with the tide.

 

Yet, the tide had warned them for some time but they were too busy to listen to it.

 

When they emerged, all bathed in water, they looked at each other with anguish and shame. What the hell were they doing? Rey just could not understand.

 

He climbed the beach, trying to get over the surging tide.

 

Arriving at the side of the road, she looked at him almost offended, "Remember that you are my enemy!"

 

Ben frowned and his heart cried in despair: all the progress they had made had vanished into thin air.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writer corner: 
> 
> Please feed the inspiration fairy with a kudos or comment.  
> If you want to read this story in Italian and English click here. https://efpfanfic.net/viewstory.php?sid=3816502
> 
> *****  
> Each chapter was written by: @shaara-2 (Zag_Star on Ao3)  
> Beta and translator: @sourdoughserenity, @giostyle-inspo.  
> Other Help: @mrsockman  
> Really Thank you to @mrsmancuspia and @spiegatrixlestrange for your wonderful image and for helping me in all possible ways.  
> Star Wars arrives from far, far distant galaxy. Reylo unites us.


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This story is a romantic REYLO fairy tale. I hope it will make you laugh, dream, and cheer your time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For @ZoeXanthellae.  
> This story was written for the anthology Reylo Charity Antology. I would like to thank everyone who participated in this charity initiative. Special thanks to @ZoeXanthellae for your help and friendship in every work I do.

Chapter 3 (English)

 

Rey and Kylo Ren both felt torn, walking back to their hotel. Despite their misadventures they were both certain that sharing that room, that tiny room, would have been more arduous than all their previous struggles and torments they had faced up until then.

 

“Good evening Mr. and Miss SOLO BROTHERS.” The hotel manager welcomed his guests with a gentle tone.

Kylo Ren ignored his presence, while Rey approached and bared her teeth at the large blubbery alien. She intended to climb up to his balcony in order to strangle him, but Kylo approached the woman. His gloved fingers wrapped over her mouth to quiet her, but accidentally stabbed her open mouth.

 

The soft touch of his gloves over her lips caused a shiver to crawl across her back, she had to find all her willpower in order to return to her senses and her usual self. Her body refused to obey her commands, without meaning to her lips gently parted against his contact as though it were and order.

 

Kylo as well was flabbergasted by her reaction, his eyes widened and he tried with all his might to hold back the gush of blood from his brain to his peripheries, that had become very sensitive over the last few hours.

 

Rey was forced to think about other things in order to find herself again. The only image capable of distracting her from the thought of ripping off his gloves with her teeth and continue to strip the man in black before her was the thought of him neglecting to use toilet paper.

 

“I won’t let you!” Kylo replied suddenly. She had left open their Force bond, he could read every single thing from her…

 

Rey wondered which of the uses of his leather gloves that she had imagined he had been able to see.

 

“Shhhh!” He made irritated. “The First Order has arrived!”

 

“And they are armed!” She replied, interrupting their physical contact. She tried to not think about anything, absolutely anything!

 

He looked at her incredulously.

 

The stayed still while the First Order squadron surpassed the hotel and walked down another road.

 

The hotel manager reset himself and began to guide them towards their hotel room without a word.

 

“Are they searching for me?” Rey said in an offended tone to her partner in crime.

 

“It’s possible, perhaps they are looking for Supreme Leader Snoke’s assassin.” He says carelessly.

 

Kylo locked the door to the room where they would be spending the night.

 

With every turn of the key Rey’s eyes grew wider like the aperture of a window.

 

“It’s possible that another Supreme Leader dies tonight if he tries to lie on my bed,” retorted Rey, with the tone of what sounded more like a wild beast.

 

“It’s possible that that is MY bed since I am paying for the hotel room.” Kylo replied ever more rudely.

 

“I booked it, this room should have been mine if you had not been brainwashing that thing in the lobby!”

 

Kylo Ren paused for a minute. “What are you on about? Had I not ‘brainwashed’ that man’s head in the lobby you would be sitting in a prison cell in the hands of the First Order.”

 

A long pause followed, their eyes gleaming.

 

“Because now, where am I? Perhaps I prefer to be tortured in the interrogation room rather than share a room with a monster!” Rey screamed as her patience had run to an end.

 

“Nobody tortured you…” Kylo said offended.

 

Rey was by now certain that being tortured would have been easier to get through than that big man with an innocent and confused look on him as he stared at her.

 

It's a war tactic, His eyes are lethal weapons, Rey reminded herself. Don’t be influenced by the shadowy and gentle look of the Prince of Darkness. I’m not going to look at them, never… she thought to herself as she grappled with the many shades of the Force.

 

“Nobody ever tortured me, right? Then who tricked me into Snoke’s trap using his puppy eyes? Who led me to believe that there was hope?” Rey became even more infuriated. If she’d had her lightsaber with her, she would have definitely finished off the job.

 

“I seem to remember that the only man to have tortured you met a bad ending…” responded Kylo, referring to Snoke, then he dwelled a little more about what the girl had just said… ”And I did not use my puppy eyes! Puppy eyes? I don’t have puppy eyes!”

 

“Yes, you do, and yes, you did.”

 

Kylo Ren, dressed in black, approached her menacingly. His shadow was upon her. Rey gathered up all her energy to push him back. She overdid it. His muscular frame was thrown back into the mattress.

 

Something in the bond strangled her every thought, reawakening their senses, something more, taste, sight, smell, touch… she smelled of midnight flowers, myrrh and sandalwood, nothing was perfect in him… she was always beautiful.

 

They both had to try and grapple onto what was left of their rational minds in order to keep pace with the wicked trick of their Force Bond.

 

The only available alternative to hugging him was to kill him in anger. Rey jumped to his neck and started to punch him.

 

Perhaps he was all to use to offensive attack, perhaps in contrast to Snoke’s torture Rey’s punches were feeble, whatever the reason Rey suddenly realized that he was not reacting… or he was reacting in an obsolete manner… not noticeable.

 

She stopped realizing that she was straddled on top of him, as he laid on the bed. Immobile and breathless, he was heavily armed but in the manner, that made them the most uncomfortable.

 

His eyes were wide with confusion and terror, jaw dropped, hair battered by her hits, and an arm blocked by her hand at the wrist. His other arm was raised to defend himself from the furious girl sat on top of his strikes, his body lay abandoned (or nearly), his heart beat in his ears and saliva pooling in his mouth. This was the image of the powerful Supreme Leader that would haunt her in the night.

 

Suddenly, Rey’s heart began to thump harder. Her chest tightened, somehow her breaths were not enough. She moved as she shared the same fear as her adversary, but he was quicker.

In an instant, an unpredictable flash, and the situation was reversed. He was lying heady on top of her and holding both her arms above her head. If his eyes where not wandering up and down her she would have thought that he intended to kill her. Perhaps he was deciding on the right point to strike. Perhaps… Certainly he was sweating like he was in the desert surrounded by a thousand Enemies.

 

Kylo Ren, feeling as though he had the situation under control again, found himself on higher ground. The scavenger could feel his superior strength, but then his thought brought him to considering their physical proximity.

 

He had never been so near to a girl. They were so close that their noses nearly touched. The had never thought about another person’s lung capacity and jet something instinctual made him want to evaluate the size of her little chest that was below him and how much breath could gather.

 

His lungs heaved in and out with the irregular beat of an indomitable heart, never giving up, never losing, but it was the fine line along his bones that made him wince. He never would have wished upon falling for such carnal desires, never! But he could hear his ears ring every time his eyes flickered past her small breasts that moved as she caught her breath. He thought how there was no better view in the galaxy than those...

 

Once again, he found himself dwelling over how great his loneliness and the consequences falling from his poor choices. He wished that he could wind back the thread of time. To change everything, every test, every decision every idea, every action that had made him the particular breed of the monster he had come to be. A soulless mask, a facade he had held through life. He wished he could have cancelled it all out up until that moment, to be just a man. would she still be rejecting him?

 

He couldn’t even think about it, he was just a monster. He let the girl’s wrists go and disappeared behind the bathroom door.

 

“I’ll sleep here.” Kylo Ren’s voice echoed slightly from the bathroom.

 

Rey was certain that he had somehow fit himself into the bathtub. She could hear his long legs knock into everything. He could not possibly fit all the way. Not all of him, perhaps he needed help…

 

After an absence of knocks befell the room, no answers, not even questions. only quiet and the sound of the ocean rolling through the night.

 

Ret threw herself onto the bed in the hopes of sleeping.

 

The crash of waves marked the passing of the hours, every larger wave that lapped against the sea defenses was followed by several smaller ones.

The colors of the night wavered between the colder and then warmer tones of the morning. At five in the morning the gentle chirper of small happy birds told Rey that the day was starting again.

 

Neither of the two had closed an eye. Aside from the uncomfortable tub, the worse the young prince had ever experienced in his sad life, every time he closed his eyes he could picture Rey again breathless before his eyes.

 

He couldn't understand how her mere breathing could strike him so deeply. Despite it all, the thought of her small frame swooned into his arms gave him a considerable headache, not to mention other, more pressing aches… and yet he could feel she wanted to tell him something. Perhaps it was simply that he was a monster. Perhaps he didn’t what to know.

 

Rey had spent the whole night tossing and turning in her bed. She couldn't quite put into frame all of the confusing thoughts that had begun with Kylo’s hand blocking the projectile heading for her back and the image of his muscular body standing in front of her, completely submitting to her.

 

Her thought wandered, what was that weapon she could feel in his pocket every time they brushed past each other, was it a blaster or something? No, no she couldn’t think about these things, she didn’t want to know the answers, even though as she thought about it more, perhaps it was normal… perhaps it was best to avoid physical contact. She could not afford to spend more of her nights rummaging through these silly thoughts.

She had a mission.

 

The anger made boiled her over. The questions scattered her mind, perhaps her poor skull would end to exploding.

 

“What are you still doing here? “She screamed in anger towards the bathroom.

 

“I’m sleeping!” The sound of his body, shuffling in the porcelain tub, followed by the sound of the shatter of glass bottles hitting the floor.

 

“Ouch!”

The Supreme Leader must have gotten up too quickly to notice the crystal shelf that was fitted above him.

 

Rey too sat up quickly as she heard the racket.

 

The Master of the Knights of Ren was on all fours desperately trying to gather up the mess that he had made by shattering the shelf and causing the shampoo, conditioner and soap and all the other useless creams supplied by the Stars and Sea Hotel to go everywhere.

 

A moment’s hesitation and Rey started shouting again.

 

“Why are you here?”

 

“I have a mission, what about you?” Kylo answered with a scream.

 

“I have a mission as well, I want to know why you are here with me?“ Rey answered trying to lower her voice.

 

“I was planetside… I heard you were in trouble… why did you stop talking to me?”

 

“It’s none of your business.“ she replied.

 

“Was looking for you for an entire year... you could have replied! What if I had something to say?”

 

Rey waited a second before talking.

 

“You didn’t deserve it.”

 

“Oh, is that how it is… I’m a monster… right? What did you want to tell me? When we were on the beach… you said... I was waiting for you…”

 

“I never said that.” She replied.

 

“Yes, you did say that!”

 

Rey was furious but she was unsure whether she would be able to tell him everything she thought. Perhaps it was still too early to tell him about her vision, his sureness with the Force and the thought that, sooner or later, he may have a change of thought, leave the Dark side, join the Resistance…

 

“I was hoping that you would join me with the Resistance, with your mother. You belong on the Light side. Stop with your hunger for power, leave the Dark side, you still can…”

 

“I am the Supreme Leader, Master of the Knights of Ren, I cannot leave my post without committing treason, and for what? Go to the Resistance? Into the hands of thieves and deserters?”

 

“They aren’t all deserters, there are also princesses and scavengers! And victims. People who the First Order tried to ruin. Do you have any idea how many people come to us for help every day? They ask for our protection from you. From the First Order. You are the most abominable thing in the Galaxy. If you weren’t around the Galaxy would be a better place!”

 

“And what do you know? Without the First Order the Galaxy would be unruly, in the days of the Republic things were bad for everyone. The whole Galaxy crumbling under unchecked corruption and injustice.” He proclaimed.

 

“Oh really, are you calling the destruction of entire stars justice? Murdering innocent women and children is what you call order?”

You are all just crazy fanatics, the Resistance will crush you, sooner or later good will reside”.

 

“And you are the good? How many of you are left now, remind me…? You, my mother and other three souls? Face it! the Resistance is over. The war is over. Give up!

 

“It’s not over while people continue to believe. We will always be fighting, always!”

 

 

“Oh, well clearly my mother is training you well. Better than what she did with me!“ His voice got louder.

 

“Of course, General Organa is a very tentative woman.”

 

“Tentative? We must be talking about different people. She was never tentative with me…”

Rey lowered her gaze.

Princess Organa was the most pleasant and amicable person in the Galaxy, yet despite this she always understood that she was solely dedicated to defending the weak against the forces of the Dark side, but in order to do so she had to give up some of the dearer things in her life, her family, her affection… Who knows how different the current Supreme Leaders life would have been if his mother had just been dedicated to him rather than politics. This could never be known.

Silence fell again upon them, as thick as a stone wall.

 

“Why ARE you here?” The Supreme Leader questioned again.

 

“I told you! I am on a mission. Please, just go, you must leave, otherwise I’ll be forced to kill you.”

 

“If I leave your side, I’d give you about ten seconds and then you’ll already be surrounded by special forces and taken to General Hux. Your face is everywhere, you’ll never make it far…”

 

“Think for yourself. Do you think I am the only person in the Resistance on planet? You could be in danger as well.”

 

“Oh, so I’m in danger…” Kylo made an ironic face, while Rey began to think about whether it was better to kill him or run… She opened the window and in a flash, she was already over the sill and on the road, vanishing in the morning mist before the Knight could even see her.

 

She ran desperately about the deserted village. She had to locate the ship and weapons supplier for the Resistance and leave this planet as quickly as possible. That was her mission. Kylo had already caused her to waste so much time.

 

Rey ran, and bolted into the first casino on the road. At 6 in the morning, it was almost empty. The rich who liked to gamble their fortunes did not usually frequent the place so early in the morning.

 

Besides the staff, the armed guards at the entrance, the waiters talking to bored barman and her, the tables were bare… there was no one.

 

Empty tables and hundreds of screens. Screens transmitting images of concerts throughout the Galaxy, alien girls dancing in skimpy outfits under pulsing spotlights, airspeeder races, scenes of luxury, fantastic creatures. Finally, a news channel. Her face from every angle, and a bounty.

 

Rey pretended to smile when she felt all the waiters, baristas and croupiers eyes staring at her.

 

Before it could even be said, the guards of the establishment had all surrounded her. Someone had called the police, as sirens could be heard growing in the distance.

 

Rey thought of a possible solution that could get her out of the situation without causing chaos, the whole day seemed to go through a deja-vu. That fool Kylo Ren was once again true.

 

She lifted her staff again, trying to think of something, but a First Order Regiment made its appearance as well in the Casino, surrounding her.

 

However, her luck changed the very second that she pronounced his name following a handful of curses.

 

That wicked man dressed in black, he had placed his mask back on. The same horrid mask he had worn when they had first met that distorted his voice.

 

He made his way forward pushing aside the police and her other assailants… perhaps his ‘girlfriend’ trick wouldn't work this time.

 

But Kylo had a better idea, at least for him.

 

“Everyone stop, this terrorist is my prisoner.” At the synthesized sound of his voice, The Stormtroopers let their Supreme Leader pass, aligning themselves in an orderly line.

 

Kylo Ren used the Force on her, causing her to collapse to the ground completely paralyzed, and as they had done the first time they met in the forest of Takodana, he lifted her over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes, hands held tight over her limp thighs.

 

A thousand curse words fit for a poor mother reached him though the bond.

 

A swift movement of Master Ren’s finger — ”You will forget all of this…”

and the whole world around them went back to normal, as though nothing had happened.

 

“You will pay for this, sooner or later I will be able to kill you!” Rey cried through the Force. ”I swear by it, I will make you scream as I do it!”

 

A dry laugh rumbled behind the mask “I will take you up on that promise…”

Kylo responded as he continued to laugh, his voice echoing silently inside her mind… ”We will see, scavenger, we will see…”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writer corner:
> 
> Please feed the inspiration fairy with a kudos or comment.  
> If you want to read this story in Italian and English click here. https://efpfanfic.net/viewstory.php?sid=3816502
> 
> *****  
> Each chapter was written by: @shaara-2 (Zag_Star on Ao3)  
> Beta and translator: @sourdoughserenity, @giostyle-inspo.  
> Other Help: @mrsockman  
> Really Thank you to @mrsmancuspia and @spiegatrixlestrange for your wonderful image and for helping me in all possible ways.  
> Star Wars arrives from far, far distant galaxy. Reylo unites us.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This story is a romantic REYLO fairy tale. I hope it will make you laugh, dream, and cheer your time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story was written for the anthology Reylo Charity Antology. I would like to thank everyone who participated in this charity initiative. Special thanks to @ZoeXanthellae for your help and friendship in every work I do.

  


#  **Chapter 4 (English)**

 

Rey had been lying immobilized by the Force for a few hours now, and out of sheer exhaustion she had closed her eyes into a slumber.

 

When she reawoke, she found herself once again in the little hotel room, draped over the bed, covered in a black robe, her wrists held down by electronic cuffs that subdued her Force sensitivity.

 

Kylo Ren sat before her on a little stool, holding a datapad and swiftly scrolling with the touch of his finger through images and text.

 

Rey raised her head trying to figure out what to do.

 

Even without the aid of the Force and her hands tied, she wanted to try to strangle him from behind, taking advantage of his distracted state. To do that, however, she would have to wrap her whole arms around his neck and tighten with all of her strength, and she did not feel confident about how good an idea that was.

 

The gentle sea breeze drifted into the room through an open window.

 

The turquoise curtains swelled and rolled with the gentle push of the wind, undulating back and forth aimlessly. A lazy creak came from the shutters’ hinges. A breeze carrying the smell of the sea fluttered Ben’s black curls, his breath barely audibles because of his concentrated reading.

The smell of myrrh was mixed with that of the salted air coming from the beach, and a sudden gleam of light shone down as the sun’s rays cut through the clouds and fell into the room and onto the young man’s face, making him look like he was highlighted by luminous filaments of light.

 

The gold threads lapped at his skin making it shine brightly. Rays of light that resided within the room, ever brightening as the sun made its way between the clouds and piercing though it like a million invisible swords.

 

Rey sighed, and for a moment, her heart gave way. Kylo turned towards her at the same moment that her breathing rose, and once again she was left breathless.

 

“You have awoken.” His voice pulsed through the air, giving rhythm to her heart beat.

 

Rey lay stunned for a second, then she continued her verbal attack.

 

“You have kidnapped me again, you, horrid monster. I’ll make you pay. As soon as I get out of these restraints I will show you what I am capable of!“ The livid girl spoke to him from the bed.

 

“I am aware of it. I am well aware of what you are capable of, little scavenger, and that’s why I am here.” Kylo Ren turned again pretending to continue read an article on his datapad.

 

“Wha- What?”  Said Ray as her eyes widened. “What do you mean by that?“ She continued, further enraged, “Are you going to tell me what you want from me?”

 

“Very well. You have a weapon that belongs to my family, and…” Kylo slid two fingers on the datapad to open up a 3D graphic without even looking at her. Then he looked back up, staring at her with ardor and little sparks of contrasting emotions, his lips tightened in a grip of rancor, “and… I’d like it back.”

 

Rey was surprised, as she always felt when she spoke with him. “So, this is your mission. You know very well that I will never give it you. Not even in death. “Her voice was now calm and secure, her glare unwavering.

 

The young knight’s eyes started to wander and scrutinize the figure of the slim woman who sat before him. Had she not injured him before, he would have thought he could beat her with a single finger, but she was Rey, his equal in the Light and despite all logic or Dark consideration, the mere sight of her drove him mad.

He had to seek tranquility, block his senses and stop the blood beginning to boil in his veins at the mere sight of her.

 

He clenched his fists in a bout of rage, triggered by all the emotions that she was capable of pulling out of him with here sole presence, and he spoke:

 

“You are immobilized in a hotel room with cuffs around your wrists, no way out, after two failed escape plans. You don’t appear to me to be in the position to negotiate”.

 

Kylo caught up with his breath, his eyes wandering far too eagerly over the woman before him, supplying him with the details of all the curves and angles of her body that in that moment he would rather not have noticed.

 

Her breasts raised and lowered with every breath, and as if by some wicked spell, he could not avoid indulging in and being magnetized by the simple physiological process. He noticed every little movement of her body, as though he could drink in the breath that entered and left her lungs like a dance.

 

A dance he would have liked to indulge as he fantasized with her bare breasts under his hands, yet it also confused him so. He shook his head and resumed talking but could hear the usual ringing in his ears that reminded him of how ridiculous it was to be a man… his voice broken by a simple nameless perturbation…

 

“Nevertheless, to demonstrate my good intentions, I will make you an offer. You will give me the sword and I will accompany you on your mission on this planet.”

 

Rey observed him the whole time, ever since he had started to look at her, and she noticed how uneasy he was, who knew what kind of military strategy this was.

 

Certainly, he was thinking about how to defeat her, he was probably studying her to seek the best position from which to strike and beat her with a swift attack. It could not be more evident that he was a man ready to strike.  She had seen many humans and aliens ready to fight back at Niima outpost... the stiffness of his muscles was a clear sign that he was going to hit her, but his eyes... they did not look like those of a man ready to attack... something in her understanding regarding male beings, perhaps, still had to be refined..

 

Why did his eyes linger on her?

 

A shiver reminded her that his appearance, especially when he looked at her with those pensive eyes, was never indifferent to her; never!

 

Rey clenched her fists and said flatly, “I cannot and will not compromise with the Dark Side.”

 

Kylo’s displeasure slid into his voice. “Fine then. Try to kill me. I’ll tell you right away, you have no chance.”

 

Kylo reacted by awakening from all those absurd considerations, returning inside himself, lost inside the evil that made him the monster whom everyone hated[CG1] [CG2].

 

“Don’t try me, scavenger, you have already tried my patience. Despite the desire to kill you throbbing in my veins, I want to give you an alternative.”

 

Rey, able to at least move, shot to her feet and began to scream.

 

“No, you have no chance against me! Kill me or I will kill you as soon as I get the chance!”

 

Kylo lost it.

“Enough, scavenger! You are really getting on my nerves now!” Ren grabbed the girl by the neck to choke her.

 

Rey’s eyes widened out of fear; he really was a monster ready to kill her. Her eyes closed out of the sheer disgust she had for that wicked beast that lived in Kylo Ren’s dark heart.

 

The man was shaken by the look of utter disgust that overtook her features as soon as he touched her, he immediately let go of the young woman’s fragile neck, who could barely breathe under him. He immediately felt guilty about what he had done, looking down at his hands as though they were covered in blood.

 

He backed away, spurred by panic, still staring incredulously at his palms and  perplexed by his own reaction. He let his arms drop to his sides, surrendering to a part of himself that he hated deeply.

 

“You are making me lose my head, that’s what you do to me…” Kylo slowly returned to sit on his stool, holding his head between his hands, bending his face towards his knees; he had fallen prey to his anguish completely.

 

Rey looked at him with surprise, for the dark man curling into himself in front of her was certainly a complicated beast. A very complicated one. Despite her suppressant restraints, she could feel his suffering over the Force bond they shared. The bond must have reawakened when he touched her while trying to strangle her, for she could now feel the pain that coursed through his veins like a poisonous river bobbing with glass shards. He felt like a monster, a repulsive, soulless being, without control. He did not deserve to live and everyone hated him; he was merely a weapon, a being without a heart... 

 

She could feel every drop of the venom burning his insides, hurting him and killing him with a thousand cuts. Why did such a stubborn being have to suffer so much? How stupid! Yet she could not help but feel sorry for him, because now she knew what it felt like inside that pain. Even if he was the most stubborn, idiotic mule in the galaxy...

 

Rey stretched out a hand towards him, as if her touch could calm him with an inner peace that he had lost long ago, or had never even had to begin with.

 

The moment he felt the warmth from her fingers touch his shoulder, his eyes darted up to catch hers and the pain vanished like magic.

 

Her eyes reflected on his. Their hearts beat in unison, every ventricle pulsing like a drum though the Force bond.

 

“I forgive you.” Rey said with a calm and gentle voice, scarcely moving her lips, her words barely audible.

 

Kylo shifted his attention towards her lips as she slowly let out those words. He had never know that the word ‘forgive’ could cause him so much pain, despite how much he loved hearing it.

 

A cold shiver ran down his back. The voice was so pleasant in his ears, like he had not heard it for a thousand years and had been yearning for it that whole time. He felt himself be dragged back to a time when he was a child and he wandered aimlessly in the hopes of hearing his mother’s voice.

 

An absent mother: her voice was a mere memory.

 

Rey remained there staring at him, listening to his cacophonous thoughts. Snoke must have manipulated his every conviction in order to have rendered him so miserable. He could not be helped with his inner turmoil, he had to save himself, she could only reach out to him with an open hand, but it was up to him to take it.

 

Kylo Ren quickly stood up, turning his attention away from the young woman as if nothing had happened, but his body still trembled, he approached the balcony facing the sea, letting the marine wind fill his lungs and the sun warm up his cold interior.

 

Rey voice followed him to where he now stood.

 

“Fine, I accept. But how will I know this isn’t some kind of trick to destroy the Resistance? I can't see why you would accompany me on a mission against the First Order.”

 

Kylo turned around again. He turned to her abruptly, as though his muscles had regained the control over his frame.

 

“You have my word. The resistance has now become a meager adversary against the First Order’s might, if you succeed at completing your mission it will be no greater threat to us than drinking a glass of water.”

“So, do you accept?” Kylo replied to her with a sinister smile.

 

“I accept! “ Rey stretched out her hand to shake on it, but he ignored it and went back to his datapad and his stool. He could not allow himself to give her his bare hand.

 

If the Force bond was active, as it often was with them, Rey would have been able to read all of his indecisions, his dirty thoughts on a certain part of her body… no, he was better at looking like an asshole than like a fool.

 

Rey stared at him as he returned to his seat, she wondered whether she had been mistaken: he was truly an idiot!

 

*

 

After letting time go by, Rey decided to speak up again.

 

“So, are we leaving this place? I’m fed up with staying here with you, I want to start my mission.”

 

Kylo lifted his gaze from the datapad.

 

“Very well, you know that we have to go in disguise to leave here. You face is plastered everywhere. “He said in a decisive tone.

 

“I understand that… and I also know who I have to thank for that…” Said Rey sarcastically.

 

“Enough, “said Kylo Ren who was tired of discussing with her, he had to do as he told and that was that.

 

“While you slept I bought some clothes for a disguise in a shop I passed by. You are going to have to wear it to get out of here. Remember, you must never take off your mask or everyone will recognize you”.

 

“I understand, now where are these clothes?”

 

Kylo indicated to her some clothes folded on the corner of the bed. Strangely she had not yet noticed them.

 

A long drape of golden fabric and little scarlet velvety triangles with only a golden chain to ornate them. And two back masks.

 

Kylo grabbed a mask and placed over his face “There we go. “He said with a decisive tone as he pointed at her disguise.

 

Rey looked dumbfounded at what Kylo’s idea on the word disguise.

 

She lifted the cloth that he had gotten her up speechless.

 

Her eyes widened and her mouth dropped in a silent scream, she wrinkled her nose in horror. Kylo Ren was mad if he thought that she would put something that thing, that outfit, if she could even call it that.

 

Her disguise consisted of a tiny bikini with barely two pieces of fabric that consisted of the slip to cover her front and behind, and a long chain to attach to her neck by what looked like a dog collar.

 

All of the hate in the galaxy poured into her and she felt so that she could barely speak. He felt so offended by that garment, so tiny as it was, that he could not speak. Then the anger took over:

 

“Are you crazy or what?”

 

 

Rey fired a nasty look at him. ”Your idea of a disguise is to dress me, or rather undress me, in a slave outfit for you to drag around by a chain?”

 

“You’re crazy!” She was so infuriated that she could not speak without throwing her hands about.

 

Kylo looked at her, baffled. ”Why not? No one will recognize you in the disguise, furthermore it will fit you perfectly. I don’t understand what you are worried about.”

 

It seemed almost insane but Kylo Ren spoke in a very serious and innocent tone, Rey realized that he must have been even dumber than she had previously thought. “No, this is insane, there is barely any fabric in this!” She said, pointing at it with her finger, her eyes wide and trembling hands.

 

“What are you on about?” Ben lifted up the outfit incredulously, stretching out the golden fabric as he was trying to show off a mountain of available textile to cover her with. He really could not understand why the girl was moaning over a silly outfit and mask.

 

“Dressed like this no one will recognize you. Nobody pays attention to slaves”.

 

“That’s what you say.” Rey added a further two points to Kylo’s rocketing stupidity scale. -The conceited fool- She thought to herself.

 

Ren grew tired of bickering with the young woman, he was growing tired of her desire to refute every decision, he found himself missing the straight to the point discussions he had with the Snoke.

 

Almost desperately he responded once more.

 

“Well, I’ve bought this now and I don’t feel like taking it back. It’s either this or nothing!”

 

“Fine, then your deal is off “Said Rey offended.

 

“Very well, our agreement is a failure then, tomorrow I will take you onto the Finalizer and we will process your treason. End of discussion,” Kylo said, tired of speaking.

 

Rey swallowed miles and miles of rage.

 

“Ok, I accept as long as tomorrow we buy new outfits and I will be choosing the clothes, ok? I can’t stand any longer being kept in this room in the company of a monster!” Rey raised her voice again…”A monster, understand? a monster!”

 

Kylo began to ask himself if it had really been a good idea to have stayed with Rey and make her the offer, his patience was quickly running dry. Discussing with the girl alone had proven to be more complicated than dueling with the Knights of Ren.

 

With the expression of a woman about to perform a heroic gesture, Rey went into the bathroom to try and put on that ridiculous outfit.

 

When she finally left the bathroom, Ben had to hold himself up with two hands over the dresser to stop him from falling over, while his jaw dropped to the floor and his eyes bounced about over Rey’s petit figure that was basically attired in a swimming suit and a golden chain around her neck.

 

The galaxy’s stars came and crashed on his brain. Something unexpected had connected between the sight of Rey and the stars that had been colliding in his mind and he began to feel a peculiar swelling in his trousers.

 

Despite the horror she felt for her poor clothing, Rey picked up the chain that hung from her collar and placed it into the hands of the man that now stood stiff and immobile before her, he now looked at her dumbfounded and unable to breathe for a least fifteen minutes now.

 

Having understood the percentage of exposed skin Rey was now wearing, Kylo began to perhaps regret his choice. His intuition had been unable to predict how uncovering that outfit would be.

 

He tried to help her by attempting to cover her a bit, moving the small length of fabric that hung from the panties, first around her back then her front. But it was no use, the amount of her flesh exposed was still too much for either’s comfort.

 

The two looked at each other embarrassed, unable to know what to do.

 

In the end Rey decided that it was still preferable to leave dressed like this rather than remaining trapped in the hotel. So, they put on their little black masks he had bought and exited, heading towards the closest Casino.

 

*

 

Having entered the Casino, Kylo soon realized that his affirmation “no one looks at slaves” was quite wrong.

 

They passed by tables with Rey held by the chain. A chain that became ever shorter with each time that his eyes met with those of some other man or alien that drawled before the silhouette of” his woman”.

 

Rey followed his with a look that was an odd mix of being mortified and strangely proud.

 

It seemed that wherever they passed, the ravenous eyes of the male sex fell onto her, while all the women present seemed to square her off with a look of either hate or admiration. But whatever the emotion was it was nothing in comparison to the tumult of anger and jealousy that she could feel flow from the man that held her by the chain.

 

She thought more than once that he must have been regretting forcing her to wear her outfit while he fumed angrily at whoever even dared look at her. His hand held around the hilt of his lightsaber, ready to commit a massacre if he had to. His eyes bawled with his anger. and a line of sweat was trickling down every time he looked at her.

 

Rey had never felt so desirable. Even so, she felt ridiculous. It was official, Kylo Ren, when he was not busy trying to destroying the Resistance, was an idiot. An idiot of galactic proportions.

 

They approached a table to play roulette.

All eyes were on her.

Kylo’s hand had latten go of the chain and instead he was directly holding onto the collar, fearing someone would steal her from him any second now.

 

“Let’s play a game, sir.”

 

The Croupier took their chips and looked at the pair indifferently.

 

“Black or red?” Ben whispered to her.

Rey had no idea why Ben’s eyes were so beautiful behind that mask.

 

She neared his ear with the excuse to tell him the color to bet on.

 

“I have spotted something that might be interesting for our mission, let go of the chain”

 

His eyes grew wide with sudden fear.

 

He let the chain slip from his fingers as Rey delicately pried it from his hands, with a touch so light it was like a caress and a sweet voice whispering in his ears that could corrupt his every thought.

She was so close to his face that he could not make anything out. A sense of confusion wrapped around his mind.

His head spinned, what was that stroke?

 

His heart collided with desire for her as she slipped away from between his hands.

 

He watched her disappear into the crowd, as the Croupier cheered for his victory.

 

All eyes were on him, at the head of the table, when the chips where pushed towards him.

 

He lost her from sight…

 

He moved away from the table without listening to the croupier that called out for him, the angry voices of players that bickered at him, the hands of more avid players trying to steal everything… everything.

 

Nothing mattered to him. Where had she gone? Where?

 

He couldn’t see her, he couldn’t feel her though the Force bond. Someone had her.

 

Perhaps someone wanted to hurt her, dressed in that manner she attracted the worst attention that resided in that awful place. This was absurd. The sole thought of someone touching her drove him crazy.

 

He began to run all over the place as he started to fall prey to panic.

 

She wasn’t there. She had run away again, it couldn’t be true.

He tried many times in vain to locate her thought the Force bond but nothing, it had closed.

 

Like a madman he wandered from table to table, sweating, asking everyone.

 

“Have you seen her?”

Every now and again someone would reply in an uncomforting tone…” Seen who?”

 

He responded ever more desperate, always more anxious and filled with fear.

 

“My slave! She is dressed in a red Bikini, a chain around her neck and a black mask covering around her eyes, she has long chestnut hair and pale skin… she’s beautiful”... and every time it caused his heart to lose rhythm.

 

One of the players replied “If I find her, that beautiful girl… I’ll keep her for myself…” He would have cut him down on the spot but there was no time.

 

Suddenly, just as he was about to give into tears, when he was about to fall victim to the most desolate of despair, a sound filtered through their Force bond.

 

The hall emptied itself of all the people in the galaxy, they were invisible as far as he was concerned. He knew her position, she was right behind him, calmly sitting on a stool in front of one of the many bars in the establishment.

 

She was speaking with a gentle tone to a shady looking barista. Exchanging thoughts and glances. He was visibly gesticulating with his hands as he spoke. A broach caught his attention. A very strange broach in the shape of a red carnation. It was so big that it couldnot go unnoticed. 

 

He watched them from afar. Her semi-naked figure flexed as she graciously spoke and smiled.

 

She was certainly the most beautiful girl in the world. He thought almost taken back by how mad he was for her, he tried to swallow the thought before going to get her.

 

Rey could feel the bond connecting them

 

She continued to speak in a courteous manner with the barman as she turned around to take a look at him.

 

She felt a void fill her stomach.

As their eyes met, she smiled as though she had never hated him and her heart skipped a beat, so great she feared that she would fall into an abyss and her plans would go to shambles over the memory of his smell and the subtle thought of the heat radiating from his skin.

 

Rey walked up to him with two glasses in hand, her gaze hungry, a wavering step and her lips pouty.

 

Ben had to rub his eyes, He must have been dreaming.

 

Rey passed him one of the glasses without taking her eyes off him.

 

A shiver ran across his back along with a wave of confusion these ran alongside the fire of his arousal. His heart had completely lost rhythm. The cosmic void in his stomach caused it to coil into knots. Why was she looking at him that way? Had she drunken something?

 

However, without asking himself too many questions he did as she commanded and took the glass and drank it while he maintained the eye contact with her, he began to lose is breath, his heart began to falter at the strange emotion.

 

She smiled again. He was certainly dreaming. He swallowed all of the champagne and ordered another straight away, he was better off drunk than leaving than wonderful dream. She told him it would be better to get the whole bottle.

 

“Barman?  Bring us another bottle of the best Champagne on the Galaxy please.”

 

The barman obeyed without pause “Of course Sir.”

 

Not knowing why, how or without a true reason, Rey’s fingers began to step over his chest, and brush little circles that he followed with his eyes.

 

He didn’t understand anything now. He rested his back against a poorly lit pillar, trying to stop himself from falling from the fragility he began to feel in his legs.

 

His body began to quiver and tremble, Rey’s hands had risen up to his face and her voice warm, with her lips so close to his ear he could feel her sweet noted.

 

Her doe eyes, filtered into his while she stroked the scar that streaked across his face. She had given it to him but now he shivered under the passing of her fingers as if the whole Galaxy passed with them.

 

Little fingers that rubbed over his lips and drew the lines of his face, he had to sit down on a nearby couch as he now really could no longer hold himself up, perhaps it was just his legs that were tired or perhaps it was the wine that he was not used to drinking, but his body had been hijacked by a sense of vertigo.

 

She happily accompanied him, sitting on his lap with her legs either side of his hips, pressing her weight on his erection, that grew stronger and greedier with every movement from this woman.

 

Without meaning to he began to pant, his body burned beneath her and he no longer had the strength to react, in that moment she certainly had the high ground.

 

Rey pointed the barman where to place the bottle as she straddled his body.

 

She could see the gaze of a completely lost and defeated man and she was not afraid until it was him who took the initiative, his mouth moved to find her own, she wanted to flee but she couldn’t and no longer wanted to, not without tasting him.

 

He grabbed her with all of his strength and moved his hands along her sides, exploring her abdomen and rising to the convex of her breasts and there she heard him loose himself and indulge in her for a brief moment, just enough to let her make a quick whine as he slipped her breast out of her clothing, exposing it. Rey grabbed hold of the back of the couch as she whimpered in pleasure, as he pushed greedily his tongue into her mouth searching for something, searching for her.

 

The both closed their eyes, lost in the moment where anything could happen, where there was no past and no future, a beat with no echo, that millisecond of paradise that begged to be found again.

 

His baited breath was all that she could wish for as she tilted her head searching for a better angle. Her mouth was filled with all of the love of the Galaxy and she moaned for him, there could be no better victory.

 

He looked at her like she was a miracle, observed her in her splendor as her cheeks went red while she detached herself from him to breathe. The both stared at each other ebbing with desire while they panted, needy and lovestruck they resumed kissing and holding each other like there was no tomorrow. Until he delved his hand where he had desired to know most.

 

Rey shivered and she collected her courage while he gently passed with his fingers. A scalding shiver forced her to whimper and arch her back.

 

Then she found the courage the press her hand over where his heat irradiated the most from. That was all she need do. She stroked his crotch how he would never have dared to ask her to, she watched him keel over in pleasure, his eyes lost and lucid as they rolled back into his head, he spouted out a thousand words of how beautiful she was and how much he desired her like no one else in the Galaxy that he could love more.

 

Ben thought he could have ended there, dying in her arms when suddenly she grabbed the bottle of Champagne and smashed it over his head with great force knocking him out along with all of his wishes and desires.

 

Rey quickly moved to grab a small object that she had hidden in the belt of her small bikini.  She adjusted her bra.

 

She looked at the unconscious man draped before her and gave him a gentle caress. she removed her chain and used it to tie Ben’s hands and legs, dragging him behind the bar to a back room with the help of the barista.

 

Rey assured that Ben was in fact out cold, she shook the hand of the servant with the carnation on her chest who had helped her, and pressed the button on her location tracker.

 

Leia, millions of kilometers away, responded.

 

“Rey? is everything ok?” Leia seemed worried by her voice.

 

Rey was victorious this time though she felt some regret over her prolonged silence. She still thought of Ben and his heat, his kisses that were passionate enough to stun her and spin her around on her feet, but she was the last Jedi, she could not indulge herself in such thoughts.

 

Organa, I have completed my mission, I have the coordinates to the Resistance fleet, the new weapons supply and one big lump called Ben Solo tied and unconscious next to me, are you interested in any of this?

 

Organa answered without hesitation. Rey could not see her but she could tell from her voice that she was smiling and for once, happy over the outcome of a mission.

 

“Excellent Rey, very well done, give me the coordinates right away and hold onto that big lump. We will come to get you!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writer corner:
> 
> Please feed the inspiration fairy with a kudos or comment.  
> If you want to read this story in Italian and English click here. https://efpfanfic.net/viewstory.php?sid=3816502
> 
> *****  
> Each chapter was written by: @shaara-2 (Zag_Star on Ao3)  
> Beta and translator: @sourdoughserenity, @giostyle-inspo.  
> Other Help: @mrsockman  
> Really Thank you to @mrsmancuspia and @spiegatrixlestrange for your wonderful image and for helping me in all possible ways.  
> Star Wars arrives from far, far distant galaxy. Reylo unites us.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This story is a romantic REYLO fairy tale. I hope it will make you laugh, dream, and cheer your time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story was written for the anthology Reylo Charity Antology. I would like to thank everyone who participated in this charity initiative. Special thanks to @ZoeXanthellae for your help and friendship in every work I do.

Chapter 5 (English) 

 

Kylo Ren awoke in the Resistance flagship.

 

His hands and feet where bound with Rey’s golden chain from her collar and Force cancelling handcuffs, and the sizable bump on his head was merely a bonus.

 

For a few minutes all of his thoughts were cloudy. All he could feel was the throbbing pain in his cranium and the discomfort he felt in his wrists from being tied up this way. He looked around seeking answers.

 

He was located in a small room lined with soft white padding on every wall. The porous nature of the wall material made him aware that he was in a room designed for solitary confinement. If he chose to scream aloud, not a single sound would be audible outside of this cell. It was impossible to break the walls down. Even the floor was rubbery. Whoever had captured him wanted to make sure that he would be unable to kill himself.

 

He stood up to better assess the situation. A small window covered by a shutter separated him from another room. Someone must have pulled the little shutter open to keep an eye on him. A small fissure almost allowed him to see just beyond his little prison.

 

His incarcerators must be on the other side of that one-way glass.

 

The crack was too small to see anything out of. One could just see the little detail of light green flooring, part of a seat, small shoes. The feet were moving without making any noise, knocking against other larger feet.

 

Another detail. Those small shoes. They became more dominant in his mind. The figure of a young woman that was swaying towards him, his eyes were on her lips. Her gaze was mean looking as she carried two glasses in her hand

 

He should have known from the beginning that the girl had always wanted to trick him.

 

She had always called him a monster; why did he think she would have have just swooned into his arms that way? She was like a liquid that flowed past his arms, his arms that sought her out, brimming with desire.

 

Her wet mouth over his lips, in the frenzy of their encounter. Her legs tightened at the touch of his fingers. She had given him just enough time to savor the warmth of her body against his. Small whimpers barely spoken. She had tried to bite his neck as he tried to pry at the opening that lay between her lips. He swore he heard her whimper and push against him and roll her head back. Her sparkling eyes shone with the bright of a thousand stars. He had only just managed to enjoy her lost expression before he felt the hard strike against his forehead.

 

That little bitch had fooled him. He bubbled with hate for himself and for having believed for a moment that she wanted to be his.

 

Kylo clenched his fists at the memory of her. His fingers gripped the chain that held him tied down, containing his rage and gathering up his desire for revenge. The resentment filled his eyes. He may very well like to kill her for this.

 

Tears of anger and humiliation flowed down from the corners of his dark eyes. If only he could use the Force to wreck everything.

 

The covering over the little window suddenly shifted. All of his rancor exploded, mixing with agonizing disappointment.

 

There was no need to wait and see the figure on the other side; part of him already knew she was on the other side.

 

Their gazes met. A burst of sparks and confused emotions let out. He backed away and tripped over his chains, she backed away as though she was shocked by something. A strange feeling of panic was visible in her eyes. He knew her heart was now racing.

 

Despite feeling the pulse in the echo of their Force connection, despite all his hate, their bond failed to waver.

 

She stared at him from beyond the glass. He was sat there on the floor but his soul was not yet dulled by what had happened between them. He was like a chained dragon. An untamable beast that was waiting to be untied. She wondered if his next move would just be to burn her alive.

 

She backed away, the look in his eyes was truly frightening now. There was no compassion in the lines of his face. Only anger and all hope lost in pain.

 

*

 

The hours passed in silence and solitude until a young dark-haired woman entered the cell to bring him some food. He knew she knew him. The girl looked at him with a disgusted look as she placed the tray on the floor.

 

He tried to read her mind before she left the room. His Force sensitivity was so terribly tamped down that he could feel his wrists ache. But he was able to to pick up something: she hated him. She had lost someone because of the First Order, who she blamed for everything, and yet she was the only one who volunteered to feed him.

The only one who would enter the lion’s cage.

 

Now he knew that he had been taken prisoner by the Resistance.

Rey was here and so was his mother, and so were that damned pilot and that traitor to the First Order.

Ren flicked through the most urgent of thoughts: that young woman was thinking about the traitor, and she was also thinking about Rey; but all that he was able to read was the vanishing undertow of some complex feelings, and there was not enough time to read much more.

 

The young woman left him alone again at the mercy of his rage.

Kylo could not believe the ungratefulness of that scavenger. He had saved her multiple times now and yet she still did not trust him. She was even scared of seeing him in chains in a cell like a circus attraction; or maybe she didn’t care to see him at all. This was the truth that Kylo was the most worried about, that despite all of his attempts Rey would see him as just a monster and nothing more. Her kindness, warmth and even her kisses were all lies to trap him, to kill him.

 

At this point, the only chance left for them was not even hatred, for that could be remediated. The real battle would be fighting her total indifference. Her absence yielded no other answer: Rey must be avoiding him because she did not love him.

 

Days passed while he remained enclosed in that cell. Not even his mother felt it worthwhile to come down to see him. Of course, he was not surprised, since it was his mother who had ignored him in favor of so many other priorities his whole life.

 

Finally, the door opened. He was unsure how long he had been kept captive. It had been days since he began refusing to eat his food, and his body finally felt weak.

 

Kylo Ren immediately recognized that stupid pilot that he had tortured on Starkiller base. He hoped that they’d just kill him and get it over with rather than have to listen to Dameron’s terrible jokes.

Luckily the pilot was not here for a chat.

His entrance was immediately followed by an incredible punch. Kylo’s mouth began to ooze blood.

 

He looked at Poe with the desire to incinerate him. The pilot backed away. Kylo Ren laughed, he could feel that that Resistance man feared him even without his Force abilities. He is so dim minded he probably doesn't even know what the Force is which is why he is scared. They were all scared. Kylo Ren smiled to spite him.

 

“Are you scared of me while I am tied up like dog pilot?” Kylo spoke between his teeth, and slitty eyed.

It was in that moment that his mother entered: his heart began to thump, he was not ready for this encounter.

 

Now he wished he flee or sink into the floor into an instant. His mother’s gaze left him feeling guilty. He was well aware that his life consisted of a series of fuckups, his self-awareness had never left him despite his choices.

 

His mother looked at him and no matter how impossible it seemed to him they still conveyed love. Leia's eyes traveled across his figure, as if to recognize all that she had missed during his absence. His growth, a string of beard, he had left her little more than a child and now what she saw is a man. But not the proud and obscure man who had been her father, his son was something all again different from Darth Vader: Ben Solo looked more like a wounded boy than a cynical Dark sider. The princess followed her son's features and the signs of his past injuries. The scars on his face. Leia wished she hadn’t felt it, but she could still feel the boy's rage in a reflection of the Force. He felt his breath ripple as if he were offended. The nerve he had! Thought Leia. Then she saw him back down, on the brink of crying. Both were thinking of Han: Ben was remembering his father. He loved his, there was no reason to kill him.

 

The pain enveloped him to the brink of suffocation. Kylo would rather die than be held accountable by his mother about this. He wanted to disappear but he had to stay: he was just a prisoner. He would never have wanted to appear weak but his voice trembled when his mother, hands on hips, looked at him as if demanding an answer.

 

"An order from Snoke," he said hastily. He looked up, did not want her to see him that way, but his heart was torn by pain and shame. He had acted without thought, he had done what his master wanted, he had followed an order. If he had not done Snoke would have killed him, yet no excuse could stand before his mother's eyes full of anguish.

 

His mother looked at him with no compassion. He knew that if she could she would have started screaming at him. Perhaps on her knees crying, but she did not dare. For the first time ever, he really felt like an imbecile. Nothing could have redeemed him. If he could of he’d of done anything to not have his mother look at him in that way. He’d of payed any price to go back in time and had killed Snoke before his father.

 

The anger returned to boil.

 

Organa decided to speak.

 

“You have been trialed at the Resistance military court. You have been found guilty of a multitude of crimes against the Galaxy. Your sentence is death.” The general paused but continued to stare at him as though she wanted to carry out the execution herself.

 

Hi lifted his head with some pride. His decisions no matter how stupid were still his. No shame. He was a soldier following orders. He did not fear death. What else did he have to lose.

 

Organa continued to stare at him. She began to speak again in a noble tone. Not a tremor came through, every emotion has been tied up in a shield.

 

Rey entered the room together with Finn. His heart stopped upon seeing her. Their eyes met. He should hate her but…

 

He could not help it but think about her mouth as she opened them to whisper his name. He doesn't have the Force but he can smell her, something immaterial that highlighted all that she is, the flow of her hair, the smell on her skin, the color of her eyes, the memory of those kisses. All of his thoughts flowed into the abstract of that channel that connected them despite the fact there was no longer a bond.

 

The Lion within him growled. She could hear it, as tho she was in the forest with him. He swallowed down its call. Rey took a step back as tho she feared him punching on her, she was not sure how, but she could feel that somehow, they were still tied in the Force. Finn’s hand lay on her shoulder. She could feel Kylo Ren’s eye’s catch fire and push forward as to he wanted to stab her.

 

Organa spoke again “And so, thanks to the pressure of a few commission members, you have evaded your death sentence. Your punishment shall be memory wiping. Your memory will be wiped back to before you joined the First Order. Since we are unable to determine when Snoke began to deviate your thoughts we decided to take you back to the only date where you were a normal person. You shall be restored to 15 years old. After which you will remember nothing.”

Kylo trembled, this was a sentence worse than death. He tried to avoid the pale figures staring at him, holding him still. He gave up. He could only move his shoulders. He looked at Rey staring at him. His mother’s glare. Both were so passive.

 

“Death would be preferred” He said aloud, pale figures approached him to inject something into his vein, it burned.

 

No one answered, only the palpable hate of the pilot and the complacent gaze of the tractor that was putting his filthy hands on the woman that he felt was his like his own flesh.

 

He growled in desperation, but his anger was not over his sentence. “Considering the technological advancements at your disposal, what are my chances of survival you guess?” Kylo looked at his mother with a pinch of disgust.

 

“About 40%,” she said, allowing a sliver of sadness to scrape through her voice.

 

“Great.” Kylo smiled “I have only 40% chance of winding up with the brain of a teen” His gaze shifted to lay on Rey “and what are the chances I wind up in a vegetative state?”

 

“Approximately 20%,” Said Poe without hiding his satisfaction. “I’ll enjoy kicking your bed… when you’re a vegetable…” As he spoke, the pilot let out a sadistic smile.

 

Rey’s eyes closed. Too many emotions were churning through her heart. She didn’t want to look at him anymore, but he wouldn’t let go, she knew that he was trying to look into her and push into the depths of her soul. Rey pulled back, taking a step back to avoid him. She knew that if she let him in she would burn in the fire of his rancor as well.

 

Finn comforted her, reaching out to hold her hand.

 

Kylo’s hatred for the traitor became more acute and he wish that he could scream or kill him without hesitation but he was just a prisoner condemned to something that made him wish for death.

 

Kylo Ren shouted, “Hurry up!”

 

The man in the white coat, the same one who had injected him, looked at him in a reassuring way. He felt sorry for him, perhaps he was a doctor. The man spoke to him kindly “We can’t do it now, we have just injected some contrasting agent and taken a blood sample. We will be able to perform the operation tomorrow”.

 

A those words the small gathering left his cell, they all moved through the door. as they had entered.

 

It dawned on Kylo that these were his last moments with a functional brain. Given the First Order’s fast punishments. The Resistance has proved itself to be far more sadistic that any Dark side power.

 

He wrinkled his nose at the thought of his mother. Her and Rey… they had been the ones to accept his mental mutilation. There was no hesitation when they spoke.

 

He should have expected that they would loathe him so much that they rather see him in a coma than dead. This thought deluded him to the point he felt lacerated. Somehow, for some reason, he continued to have some hope. He could not give this emotion a name; he rather not have felt it.

 

In his last moments of self-awareness, his heart gave in to his fate.

 

He tried to count the eternal minutes.

 

The wait became agonizing, leaving him tired and confused. He closed his eyes and slumber took all his worries away.

 

*

 

A muffled noise awoke him suddenly.

 

It was night, he could not be certain, but all the lights in the room where switched off.

 

A sound alternated with silence behind the door. It sounded like key, some metal tool. Something was trying to open the armed door that separated him from the rest of the world.

 

The door squeaked. It opened slowly. A light entered the space. A figure emerged. His breath was heavy and his heart beat like a drum.

 

Their body was silhouetted against the light. He observed their willowy figure. They were shorter and not wearing any shoes, skinny legged. A baggy flowing top covered their figure until their knees. Kylo’s heart began to beat frantically. He continued to stare at the shadow, their hair formed an even figure from head to back.

 

It could of been anyone, if it were not for the smell that entered the room.

 

Her light, hurt his heart. He could not believe it. Rey had come for him. He could feel his chest pulse as tho he was about to jump out of an aircraft with no parachute. She was ever closer. He felt confused. Was she there for him?

 

She was so close he could see her pant, the crease of her dress over her sternum. He was immobile staring at her mirage. Surely, he was going insane. Perhaps he would be able to escape, but she closed the door behind her.

 

Kylo swallowed as he felt the woman of his dreams return.

He could feel her body heat more with ever pace. This time his folly would not be interrupted by wine. If it was just a hallucination and he wanted to make the most of it. It didn’t matter: this time he was really going to have her to himself.

 

He didn’t have a tomorrow so he could do whatever he liked.

 

He grabbed her in the dark to drag her to the floor. There was no need to speak, he had no doubts that she was his. She was breathless but showed no disapproval. She allowed his greedy hands to move over her, he could take whatever he liked.

 

Her legs where bare, her body was just covered in a silken nightdress. She could have been dressed in rags but he would not have minded, but she could feel the reverberations of his breaths take rhythm as he realized that beneath that gown was just her underwear.

 

Kylo traced up and down her legs like they were roads. He lifted her night dress above her hips, placing waves of kisses on her thighs and tender caresses. His lips go higher and Rey felt something soften in her core.

 

Her body wavered like it was in a semi liquid state. A little whimper escaped from her lips, as he grabbed her underwear that was soaked from all of her inconfessable thoughts. He goes higher, without saying anything, his hands grab her breasts.

 

He pauses, even though it’s dark she knows that he’s still staring at her. The kneeled figure before her spread legs shone with a silver lining.

 

He moves down again, with his lips he kisses her breasts, first and then the other, He lets go and then grabs them again as tho he knew both of them well, Rey could not help herself but arch her back and plead for him to go back to paying attention to the spot he had left abandoned and moist.

 

He moves up again to kiss her neck, her ears and then her chin, her hair and her lips, she hoped he’d return back down again. She remembered what he tasted like but that brief taste she got was enough to leave her tortured and brimming with desire. She wanted to bite his lips again and again, after all he was there, once again still and staring down at her.

 

He stops moving and she is forced to call him back with a hand. She dips her fingers between his and he immediately understands what she really wants.

 

He precipitates on her again and this time he devours her, breathlessly kisses her. His heart beat drumming in his ears and there is not a centimeter of his skin left that is not screaming her name.

 

“Rey, Rey, Rey,” he cries like a castaway, as tho that name was going to save him from an ocean of water and a sea wracked by a storm.

 

He kisses her like a famished man and she is the only food capable of satiating him, but he will never be able to quench it really so he keeps going, with ardor and desperation. Drunk with desire, confusing everything else, there is no reason left, no emotion, no change in circumstance that was capable of quieting the fury of this encounter.

 

“I won’t run, remove my restraints.” His face lifted up again with the light streaking behind him.

 

“Ok, but eat something first, you haven’t eaten in days,” Rey whispered.

The handcuffs fall to the floor, the chain breaking.

 

“I already have the only food I will ever need…” She can’t see him, but she knows he is smiling.

 

She smiles back, but she repeats her question in earnest “If you don’t eat, I will leave.”

 

He smiles again. “Give me my food then.” She chuckled and smiled; he’d eat anything to make her return to his arms.

 

“I brought you some bread... it’s nothing grand but… it’s not easy to pass unnoticed.” she passed him a few slices in her hands. Had there been any light she could of watch him gobble them down. He chews on bones if she had asked him of it.

 

The food finished but the hunger for one another did not waver. Relieved of his restraints the Force returned to feed their bond. Their thoughts flowing along like boats along a shoreline.

 

He breaks the silence, with a crackling voice almost hoarse. “Are you willing to grant any last wishes to a man on death row?” His eyes fell on her like the drawing of a curtain.

 

“No…” Rey’s voice is thin like the lick of the wind.

 

“Why are you here then?” He stared at her tentatively.

 

“I have come to take what is mine…” She said in a hurry as though her own words felt the cold, like soap bubbles falling through the air and popping. He wouldn’t let them fall, he gathers up her hands and kisses her palms. She signs, those kisses burn her soul… then his warm and full lips pause “continue…” Ben draws her wrists to his face.

 

Rey does not respond. She had never spoken about these thing with anyone and he knew what she felt in that bond that tied them together, but he is not content, he has nothing to lose and he wants her to continue speaking.

 

“Tomorrow you will forget about me…” She spoke and every word hurt her like thorns. He already knows her fears, but he wants to hear them first hand from her voice.

 

He stretches out a palm to her face, she strokes away a tear that dares to trickle down her cheek. She looks at him against the light. He finds the words to speak.

 

“I won’t forget you…” and as he says it his lips dive into hers and allows his tongue to stroke hers. He deepens the kiss as he listened her every breath and her every moan that make him feel even more proud of forcing her to whine and shiver to his every touch. Prey to desperation Ben decides to speak again. “We have out bond, if I were to forget you, my heart will seek you out to find you, until you are mine, until we are together again.”

 

Rey divulges, still crying. “Your mother says that if anything, you will only remember her.” She lowers her head again.

 

Kylo completes the phrase that Rey dare not say “...If I ever make it through the operation with my brain intact? is that what you mean to say?”

 

Rey does not respond, but that was her feeling. The chances that he survived the procedure were really low.

 

He responded with a serene voice, fearless. “Rey, the fact that you are here now is the only thing that matters to me, tomorrow they can gun me down or cut me up with a saw if they want, I would not give a damn…” The man lay down on the soft floor, waiting for her to join him.

 

“Before I forget who I really am, I want to know something…”

 

It was dark, she sat with the light behind her. She sat quietly, feeling their bond vibrate; they had never been so close. She waited for his response, but he didn’t say anything. She was forced to ask, “What do you want to say to me?”

 

“Why didn’t you kill me on the Finalizer? Why did you not free yourself of me when I was unconscious?” Ben looked at her awaiting. His breath only just perceptible.

 

Rey made a face, the answer was the hardest thing to explain she had ever had in her life, but perhaps there was no tomorrow and she too had nothing to lose.

She gathered up her energy but the sound of her but the sound of her voice was feeble as it flowed out her lips.

 

“I did not kill you because I loved you.”

 

Her answer inflamed his heart, and suddenly he couldn’t breathe. His head started spinning and the world felt like a ride that was going too fast. He had always felt invincible but now he just wanted the girl to save him. He was scared like a child as he felt his feelings explode in his veins heavy like rain.

 

They looked at each other filled with excitement, the same look on each other’s faces that they had with sabre in hand while they were fighting. The Light and the Dark had met in an embrace. The bond closed. The two hearts were beating as one, lungs filled with the same air as destiny united them.

 

The woman leaned over to close the distance.

 

He sat up to unclothe her. She does the same and he in that moment realized that his had been ages since he had been ungloved. She continued to undress him until he was naked and he was unsure if there was any air left to breathe.

 

Suddenly he felt fragile and exposed, she had forgotten the feeling of cool air on his skin, it almost felt like it was going to wind him. He thinks back at the last time he felt this vulnerable. Perhaps it was when he was just a boy and his mother bathed him in the tub, it made a tear roll down his face. The memory brought up another memory of a rock emerging from the breaking waves of a storm in which he is castaway, he grabs hold of hit seeking safety. The memory emerges like out of the waves of thought of him as a child laughing in the arms of his mother and now as then he is able to smile for real once more.

 

Rey’s tears baptized his pale completion. He looked at her as to he need cross flames to reach her.

 

She reached out her hand and dragged them over him. “And you, why did you come looking for me?”

 

Their lips brushed together. A second of silence transected their lives. “Because I love you too,” Ben said with a trembling voice, and Rey closed the distance between them. She hugged him.

 

A gentle light painted the walls.

 

The white of the panels looked as to it liquified into a vortex of color, some light and some darker, but neither really defined because feelings have no true color but is fed off broken souls, some lonely, some hurt, ones crossing space and time infinite times until winning over darkness and the splendor of any star, even the brightest one, because the life that is born out of love, doesn’t belong to anyone of not Love itself.

 

Ben grabbed Rey by the waist, letting his hands run like water, two rivers crossing mountains to join in the ocean.

 

There is nothing that can harm them for now, nothing that is not their voice or the light of their own bodies, eye’s in eyes, the beat of a butterflies wind as light as the drumming of their souls for each other. Light and Darkness advanced. A drum beat in their head was providing rhythm to their bodies.

 

“I…” Rey interrupts the sound of the drums. He stops to listen “I’ve never done this…” He smiles perhaps it’s the first time for him as well but he does not say anything, who really cares… they kiss again as an answer.

 

Darkness leaves and Light emerges. It spreads out in the room and coloring every tone of the wind, the sea and rain. Only a single black cloud hovers over their bright sky. The Light lets him enter, first gently but then ever more vigorous drawing the shape of their two moving figures. Dark penetrates the Light. Rey whimpers and tightens her grip on his hands. Ben cries out her name and caresses her face with his lips and the promises of their encounter, he pushes deeper into her until they were one.

 

They close their eyes in the same moment as a new feeling travels through them. Letting the feeling take over their every intuition and the small movements of their hips.

 

She brushed his black hair away from his face; his eyes were filled with stars and in the center of his pupils she recognized a light: her image.

 

The Dark highlights all celestial bodies. Gravitational waves move energy, a black hole crosses their Galaxy as he approaches the event-horizon, he whimpers and trembles within her. She gathers him in her core until he is finished, until she is filled by him. Her eyes tremble. “I will love you forever.” Finally Darkness is blown out under the light of their love, life wins once more and a new star is born. They fell asleep on top of each other.

 

If only tomorrow were not coming so soon..

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writer corner:
> 
> Please feed the inspiration fairy with a kudos or comment.  
> If you want to read this story in Italian and English click here. https://efpfanfic.net/viewstory.php?sid=3816502
> 
> *****  
> Each chapter was written by: @shaara-2 (Zag_Star on Ao3)  
> Beta and translator: @sourdoughserenity, @giostyle-inspo.  
> Other Help: @mrsockman  
> Really Thank you to @mrsmancuspia and @spiegatrixlestrange for your wonderful image and for helping me in all possible ways.  
> Star Wars arrives from far, far distant galaxy. Reylo unites us.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This story is a romantic REYLO fairy tale. I hope it will make you laugh, dream, and cheer your time.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story was written for the anthology Reylo Charity Antology. I would like to thank everyone who participated in this charity initiative. Special thanks to @ZoeXanthellae for your help and friendship in every work I do.

Chapter 6 (English)

 

The sunlight came like a promise on Ben Solo’s closed lids.

 

The memory swipe procedure was to be performed early in the morning.

 

Only medical staff and General Organa had accompanied the inmate into the operating room.

 

No one opened their mouths to actually say anything out loud, but all remained wary of the docility with which the most fearful and powerful man in the galaxy had surrendered to his fate and no one, from that day onwards, would be able to forget the satisfied smile of the condemned man had in the face of such an uncertain future, comparable only to death. Someone more careful might have even noticed that little spark of hope that still shone in his eyes.

 

Only one person did, at that time, and they shared the same hope.

 

*****

 

Rey opened the window of her little cabin overlooking the sea.

 

The salty smell and water vapor gently stroked her opalescent face as it was bathed by in sunlight. Small droplets of water were carried by the wind, and they hit her like a slap, like a feeling of remorse, like a goodbye.

 

Rey looked at the reflective sea, with the wind crossing over it to join her in these last moments of tangible light. Kylo Ren’s darkened eyes cast a shadow over young Rey's golden irises like a sun being eclipsed. Their hearts where still aligned though astrological memory. A thud of the heart, his last breath, then the emptiness as the connection closed.

 

\---

 

Ben Solo woke up in the room of a small field hospital.

His mother held his hand by his bedside.

A dozen doctors and nurses surrounded him as he took a deep breath.

 

He rose abruptly as the sunlight informed him that the day had already arrived.

 

A man in his fifties invited him to lie down again as he measured his blood pressure.

 

Ben looked at his mother as she cried sitting by her bed.

 

"Mom, what happened?" The woman looked at her son as if he had returned from a 1000-year journey. As if he had crossed the oceans or survived a terrible winter storm. He stroked her hand as if he were dead and only a miracle had brought him back to life again, while he watched her stare at him with fear. Ben looked at his mother as she stroked at his hand like he had been a dead man. There was one thing that he was confused by, he could not remember anything… or perhaps it was something else.

 

Ben focused on the face of the woman in front of him as he realized that her eyes were surrounded by new wrinkles, creases fanning out from the corners of her eyes like river deltas - hopefully formed by laughter, he thought to himself.. Small imperceptible furrows on her skin that he did not remember having seen grow before, her figure looked tired and her hair had changed. Perhaps a clever thief had stolen her youth in the night. Everything he remembered of her now seemed faded.

 

The boy’s sweet voice reached out to the General in the bunker where she had locked herself in.

"Mom? ".... And the princess returned to the present, forcing a smile.

She sought courage, her enemy was dead, the Dark side had not won, the prisoner had paid for his crimes, his son was alive once more.

 

"My son," she answered with a breath. "You were received an operation to your brain, the operation went well but you are experiencing memory loss." She looked at him unable to caress him.

 

Ben looked at her in disbelief. Millions of questions burned like embers in his mind. "How much memory have I lost?" He said it with a little fear breaking though.

 

Organa smiled unable to hide her veil of pain. She spoke softly as if she were comforting that boy or rather herself. "You've lost almost all your memory, but we'll help you find a new self. You're with us now”.

 

Ben turned to look at her, spreading a smile and stretching his arms out to feel the warmth of his mother, as he woke up he had the eyes of fifteen-year-old again, his childhood was not so far away. "So, I will not be going back to camp with Uncle Luke?" Ben moved his hands and hardly contained his incredible joy.

 

The mother’s eyes widened, masking a pang of pain that tore through her chest, she reminded herself that the monster who had destroyed everything was dead, the young Ben Solo sitting on the bed before her had no recollection of his evil and had no faults. No longer, his faults or weaknesses had been erased from the Galaxy around them.

 

A tear slipped down the princess's face, "No, you will not go back to Uncle Luke's camp, you've always asked us if you could not be a Jedi, this time I am going to listen."

 

Ben could not contain his smile. "Do you mean that I will stop studying the Force? I will not be a Jedi any more how you and Uncle wanted?” His eyes were filled with hope, waiting for confirmation from his mother.

 

"No my dear. You will not continue to study with Uncle Luke, because... Uncle Luke has died and even if he was still alive... you never wanted to become a Jedi. But we can not let you live a normal life if you can not control your energy. You will be accompanied in the study of your power by a young Jedi, she is the only one who can help you find some balance. "

 

Ben's eyes went from a state of evident euphoria to have heard his mother authorize him not to continue his studies as a Jedi to an oppressive sense of desolation. Joy had given way to pain. His uncle was dead and with him his idol, his goal, somehow a slice of his future had dissolved, disappeared and finally died with him.

 

The problem was no longer that he was being forced into something by his parents; even if he really had wanted to become a Jedi, this was no longer possible without a true master.

 

Ben thought back to how unjust and useless the war was, there was no end, but above all it only seemed to bring in his family was pain and loss. His uncle was dead and with him a piece of his hope.

 

Ben and his mother remained silent for a long time. His mother had raised a wall of pain as he fought to contain his tears.

 

Then he took courage, did not want to cry like a child, he would do it silently in his frequent nights full of anguish, but now, in front of her, he wanted to look like a strong man... He changed the subject, looking for the only thought that still came back to mind "Did you say a girl?”

 

Organa nodded, still not talking.

 

The boy returned to the subject. "Is she a pupil of Uncle Luke that I already know? Is Mira the human with red hair? "

 

Organa shook her head. "No, it's not her."

 

Ben sighed "Ah, thank goodness, she had the same patience as a rotten rhinoceros." He thought about it for a while, then rolled his eyes, looking at the ceiling and talking, grimacing with his mouth. "Will it be Sansa: the Mandalorian without teeth?" He continued to look at his mother, trying to hold back the pain still pounding in his heart at the thought of Luke... but he did not want to talk about it.

 

Leia understood that her son's pain and sadness were cutting him in half, like a tightly wound wire. After all, Luke's will was to save Ben from himself and somehow he had succeeded.

 

Still having her son in her arms was the miracle that the Skywalker siblings were waiting for. Now they had to believe in it. The princess hid a tear in the furrow of a wrinkle, she began to pay attention to the boy who was before her: "It will not be her, as I told you do not know her, and all these people in the Jedi camp...have gone... see my son..." Leia stopped to look for words, but for a moment nothing came out of her mouth.

 

Ben's eyes widened. "Mom, what did my friends in the Jedi camp do?” A nightmare began to rise up in his mind already torn by the operation.

 

Leia hastened to speak "See my son, in the part of the memory that you miss... there was a war, a battle without Light. Most of the world you know has been destroyed, the Resistance, the Republic, the Jedi Camp... your Uncle Luke... your companions.... and those who didn’t die passed to the enemy side, to the Dark side.... Now it's called First Order, we are the only survivors of the most ambitious galactic battle in history. "

 

Ben's eyes glared. His mother continued to explain.

 

"We have lost in every way possible, our fleet has been destroyed, almost all our friends are dead. We are what remains of the Resistance, only those that you will soon see on this island hidden by every star map remain. "Leia swallowed her bitter pill.

 

Young Solo could only watch his mother as she explained her biggest defeat.

 

"Mother, what you describe, my whole world has been destroyed, the war, the battles, I don’t understand everything, but Uncle Luke.... How is it possible? No one would be able to challenge him or kill him, tell me who was it mother? "

 

Leia's eyes widened as her heart opened, bleeding...

 

"It was doubtfulness that killed him. The doubt of resembling our father that destroy him, but ultimately it was love that saved us from the same evil that had worn us down. "

 

Ben looked at his mother without being able to understand her answer. "Mother I do not understand what you're talking about... I do not remember anything and I just have a big headache... please could you explain to me? "

 

The Princess stroked her son's face as if it had not touched him for at least a couple of lifetimes, and when the warmth of her hand was again in contact with his skin, a small spark of energy brought the only necessary message. Union, the infinite love of a mother for her son. Everything else could wait. "My boy, you just recovered from an incredible operation, is good that you rest now, I'll tell you everything very soon...."

 

Leia started to leave the room when Ben's voice reached her on the door jamb.

 

"Mom? If you do not want me to become a Jedi like Uncle Luke, can I go be with my father?"

 

His mother's eyes winced in pain as her heart felt crushed at the memory of Han.

 

"That is not permitted." Organa did not turn to look at her son but he continued his request.

 

"Mum, please, I want to be a smuggler like Dad, you never allowed me but it's always been all I wanted to do... Think of two Solos around the galaxy stealing from the rich to give it to the poor... Dad’s always wanted to do that with me.. please... "

 

"Well, now I have to go... I’m afraid we'll talk later..." Leia put her hand on the door. Then she slipped away followed by the same sentence that had always accompanied her exit....

 

"Mom, please don’t go away..." Ben spoke it with a faint voice, the same subtle sound that he had whenever his mother left him alone at the mercy of himself and his fears.

 

The woman's figure disappeared behind the door.

 

Ben's heart stopped beating as a sense of anger mixed with pain emerged in the rooms shrouded in the fog of his solitude. The taste of salt from his tears.

 

Then the light returned to the room, the door opened again and his mother colored his hopes with hug.

 

The princess took her son's chin in her hands, speaking softly "Before we were blind, that's why we failed, but your uncle was right... there is always hope. From tomorrow on you will resume your studies to become a senator of the future Republic. Now you are our hope."

 

Ben's eyes lit up in surprise. "Senator?"

 

“You can make war in so many ways, my son, it makes no sense to continue where you have failed.”

 

***

 

Poe's hand circled with a small cloth to polish the wing of his wing-X fighter.

Finn mutedly watched his little movements.

A metallic noise was heard in the background. Perhaps a compressor left on as it sounded like many little jackhammer beats which composed the sound of that morning.

 

The whole Resistance was engaged in the maintenance of its air fleet.

The compressor noise stopped for a moment.

A girl with a wrench in her hand re-emerged from the Krupx proton torpedo compartment.

Rey took off her goggles and smiled at her friends.

 

"Done! Now the outer hull is perfectly anchored to the movable bottom. I rebuilt a part of the launch tube so that the torpedo will now outflow fluidly and no external body can re-enter during the ejection. "

 

Rey picked up a rebellious tuft that had broken off from her three hair ties during the repair operations without realizing that she had in the process just smeared a large amount of grease on to her face.

Finn's expression soon passed from wonder for her technical skills to the funny image of her face cut in two by a large patch of black oil.

 

"Wow! Now you're sexy, Rey!" Said Finn, laughing and approaching her.

 

Poe looked up at the young man, letting go of a big laugh. "Finn, I want to see you come out of cleaning the launch tube of my Wing X without getting dirty, come on! Show me how you can fix torpedoes? "

 

"I'm not an expert on torpedoes, I believe that is your area of expertise - as far as I know..." Finn replied amusedly, laughing like a child at his own jokes.

 

Poe raised his face from the cockpit of his ship with an amused smile. "If the torpedo you are referring to is what I think it is we should ask Rey, at the moment she is the only one able to straighten it".

 

Meanwhile Rey was trying to remove the strip of oil on her face with her hand, with the only result she could manage was to spread it all a little everywhere. At the sound of Poe's last words, she felt she had to answer intervene.

 

"You two..." she said with a menacing air locked between amusement and offense. "If you do not finish talking about torpedoes, I will put you both in the launch tube and watch both fire out of it..." Laughing, she approached her friends with a fake menacing air.

 

Poe and Finn pretended to run away worried about the treat, but she grabbed Finn by the shirt and tried to drag him down. When he found himself face to face with her, she began to smear a bit of the oil on her face onto Finn's face, too, while the pilot's laughed.

 

"Have you seen Finn? Never provoke a Jedi! " Poe laughed out loud trying to get away from the girl as she was trying to grab him with the clear intent to get him covered in oil as well.

 

A couple of brisk movements and the young pilot ended up caught by Rey. She threatened the pilot's face with her oil covered hand as he pushed back against the stabilizer. He fell back, the thud of his body against the flood moved some bottles placed over the fuselage, causing the small plane vibrate.

 

A liter of lemon-yellow lubricant fell on the two youths, leaving them as filthy as pigs in a pool of mud and imprisoned in a compulsive laughter.

 

At that moment Leia crossed them in front of the military depot. She was serious and trapped in thought and her aura was filled with contrasting emotions like the ebb of a storm.

 

Ray knew immediately that Ben must of been awake. Leia had not stopped to share at empty space, her mood worried her. A cold chill struck the girl with a distressing thought. If Ben had recovered from the operation why had she not felt it though the Force bond? Had she lost the link or what? Had he returned to a rational state or remained in a vegetative state as Poe hoped?

 

Rey wanted to know.

 

She abandoned her friends and ran to the small Resistance hospital, rushing into Ben's room.

 

Forgetting she was covered with grease and motor oil, Rey settled in the chair next to Ben's bed.

 

The young man was asleep, did not seem sad, did not seem Dark, did not seem prisoner but neither free, he just looked like a beautiful boy who breathed slowly lost in his dream.

 

Rey thought about the moments she had spent with him when he was still Kylo Ren. She had brought him to the Resistance, had him imprisoned and judged as if that was the only right option, but despite everything she was still not sure that was the correct solution. She knew that in the soul of that ferocious warrior there was still a heart, there was still hope.

 

Kylo Ren had not become a Sith despite the First Order and his obedience to Snoke, but above all, in spite of any opinion, he was still able to love. She had always known it and she was sure that this would bring him eventually to the bright side of the Force, perhaps in time, perhaps with her help, but she felt that for her sake he could do great things....

 

Unfortunately now it was too late for these second thoughts.

 

Rey had done what was asked of her. Like a soldier she had obeyed the order of the General. She had made the only possible choice for a Jedi.

 

The Dark side had been turned off. The monster had been destroyed and all that remained of that boy now slept peacefully in front of her. Who knows who he really was now, and who knows what he would have become with this new change he was given. But above all, Rey could not help wondering who knows what would happen to them, that little bond that had united them, would there still be?

 

A light crossed the clouds, it looked like an answer, like a thin blade conquering the dust that flew in the room, blinding her eyes and leaving the image of Ben against the light.

 

She had not even finished making this thought when Ben's eyes snapped open, turning to her figure. And then turning away to look elsewhere in the hope that the girl disappeared from his view. After a few minutes, he noticed that the young woman who was smeared with motor grease had remained on the chair, he turned to look at her again.

 

His eyes looked icy.

 

Rey winced upon noticing his foreign gaze that flashed from the top to the bottom of her figure. The disgusted expression of his mouth accompanied a cough.

 

The girl felt torn the thought that the boy she had loved until a few hours ago was not only unable to recognize her, but from his look it was clear what he felt for her... simply made her sick.

 

It was a stab to the heart.

 

Rey's mind went back in time. Eternal lands of hot desert crumbled her memories and set them on fire. Expanses of sand moved by the wind formed small mounds of granular matter that encircled her memories and poisoning them with the bitter thought of her solitude.

 

Suddenly she found herself, a child in the hands of Plutt, who only with his lascivious look reminded her exactly who she was: she was nobody, nothing but a grain of sand still able to breathe.

 

Her nightmare was interrupted by Ben's voice.

 

"Who are you?" His warm eyes on her.

 

"Emmm, hi, I'm Rey and I'm your friend." Rey smiled at him, but Ben's eyes did not respond with the same feeling. A bored and painful expression accompanied his words, while a rebellious tuft fell on his face. A snort before speaking. " What do you want from me?"

 

The girl replied, ignoring the feeling of annoyance that showed through the boy's expression. Her hand extended towards him. "I came to see how you are. You have undergone some treatment. "

 

The boy snorted, shifting his dark hair and looking at the ceiling. "I'm fine." A silence lasting a century. "Now, please, go away."

 

***

 

Organa called the few remaining rebels from the war to the First Order in a meeting.

All the fighters sat around the princess in the meeting room. Leia remained standing welcoming a group of doctors.

 

Leia's sweet voice accompanied the small delegation beside her. "Please, dr. Handy, tell us about the situation. "

 

Dr. Handy, an albino Twi'lek, took the floor. "Good morning everyone, I am Professor Handy and I want to reassure you that the operation went well. The patient has recovered 100% of his physical and mental abilities but his memory is strongly compromised. He ignores those who have been in his life for the last 15 years and needs some help. He will have to learn to drive a car au, a spaceship, he will need to finish his studies and have some friendships, he will need to start over. "

 

Poe Dameron raised his hand and asked for the word. "Doctor, are there any chances that the bastard will remember who he was and may he kill us point black?"

 

The doctor answered while turning a large gold ring on his finger. "We have erased some of his memories, not his personality, he will always be what he was, but if we help him he will perhaps be a better man."

 

The young pilot sat back nervously, it was clear that if it had been for him he would have eliminated the problem “Kylo Ren” at the root.

 

The doctor began to speak defiantly. "Mr. Dameron, I met your parents and I know what they would have done in your place, let me tell you that this boy has already paid his faults, your rancor will not help anyone."

 

The pilot felt offended, accumulations of anger had stagnated in his heart since the disappearance of his parents. Tired of feeling their weight, he took his things and left the room. Finn followed him with his eyes to reach him soon after.

 

The air was tense in the resistance group, but Leia was a righteous person, she did not speak to defend her son, but to always make the best choice.

 

“Rey, from tomorrow, you will join Ben as an apprentice Jedi, you will be a student for the parts that I consider necessary to perfect your profession. When you have taken an oath as a Jedi, you may find yourself in complex environments and the knowledge of some formal rules could help you move forward in these situations.

You will follow the same studies as Ben as long as you are not both ready. Mr. Dameron instead will be his teacher of strategy and military aviation.”

 

The princess raised her eyes to the sky with an air of impatience, with a voice of velvet. "Poe Dameron, I know you're behind the door, come back inside. "

 

The young pilot returned to the meeting room with his back to his shoulders and his tail between his legs followed by Finn, who followed him, with an obvious sense of embarrassment on his face as he crossed the room.

 

The general smiled, "Mr. Dameron, you will be my son's teacher. You will teach him to pilot an X-Wing as you would do with anyone else, without hesitation and without resentment, the prisoner paid his sentence. I no longer want to see insubordinate attitudes on your part! "

 

Poe winced at his place as he used to do when Organa scolded him for his caprices or his hostile attitudes and in his heart, he knew that the General was always right.

 

***

 

The day ended early and with the arrival of the new sun Rey felt a thrill of emotion at the thought of doing the first school lesson of her life.

 

She had never studied. She had always lived in a state of semi-slavery in the desert. Everything she had learned, she had discovered by herself. The idea of becoming a more cultured person filled her with joy and excitement, the only doubt and regret she had where for what was left of her relationship with Ben Solo.

 

It was obvious that he had not recognized her, but of the few interactions that he had allowed with her, he probably even found her uninteresting. "It will be difficult," she thought to herself, hiding a sense of bewilderment and loneliness. "But it will always be better than when it was Kylo Ren and he was inflaming the galaxy with its hatred. "

 

Time passed quickly, there was no way she would find enough to have breakfast. She washed his face, dressed quickly and ran to the small hut used as a classroom.

 

C-3PO stood in front of an incredibly antique-looking blackboard.

 

A black slate blackboard with many colored chalks placed in a small basin attached to the right edge of the structure, dominated the small room.

A chest of drawers and a small square table with many accessories ordered under the only opening of the house. A window from which you could see a breathtaking view.

 

The hut was right at the top of a rock. A cliff on the sea.

 

Rey could feel the energy of the waves crashing against the rocks. Waves high as the height from which the small school stood out, low waves and sweets that caressed just the suspended stones.

 

The sea always lived conflicting emotions in the continuous search for something that never seemed to reach, but the ocean would not give up and not even the wind that challenged it every day.

 

A large desk with a notebook and pens stood next to the blackboard and in front of it a further table with just two chairs, one of which was already occupied by a young man who looked both regal and listless: Ben Solo. It would have been possible to understand from miles away that the young man had no interest in staying in that place.

 

Rey sought his attention as she entered the room, but the boy did not seem to sense her presence or maybe he was pretending and did not even see her when she tripped on the bag he had left in the chair next to him not to let her sit down.

 

At that point, Rey was forced to attract his attention.

 

"Hey, do you want to turn around for a moment?" Rey could not even call him by name.

 

C-3PO, seeing the situation, introduced the two as if it were the first time they met. "Come on Rey, please, but first let's introduce ourselves...".

 

He folded the palm of one of his hand towards the young man sitting on the chair. "Well Mr. Solo, I'll introduce you to Miss Jakku." Then he turned the palm of his other hand towards her. "Rey, let me introduce you to Ben Solo. Prince of Alderaan."

 

Rey grimaced at Ben's bag still resting on the chair where she was supposed to sit.

 

The young man said "please" with a annoyed tone, without bothering to look at it.

 

The situation was aroused by the young Rey. "Do you want to move this bag?"

 

This time the boy turned to look at her, but reluctantly, Rey swallowed her saliva to realize that he was looking at her with the same interest with which he would look at a spider.

 

C-3PO once again called the girl. "Come on Rey, sit down in your place, we must begin the lesson. "

 

Rey spread her jaw and her arms, feeling this rebuke unjust, it was not she who did not want to sit down, but it was Ben, who was occupying his chair with his junk.

 

Rey decided to take the situation in her own hand. She put her hands on her hips with her elbows on the outside in a typical pitcher position, addressing the young man seated in front of her in a determined tone. "If you do not take your things off your chair, I'll take care of it myself!"

 

The boy turned back to her with a half smile. "Do not you see that it’s occupied? Find another place." Ben returned to his position by moving his nose upwards.

 

"YOU". Rey said, grabbing him by the collar of his shirt. "There are no other chairs and your bag is about to explode." The boy finally deigned any desire to look at her, it was certainly not an expression of courtesy. Rey lost patience. "I will count to three...."

 

Ben's lips bent slightly in his beautiful pouty mouth. "I would not do it if I were you..."

 

Rey began to count. "One!"

 

Ben moved his hair almost upset by the courage of the girl. Did she understand that he was the son of the General, a prince of noble origins and a dangerous user of the Force?

 

For a moment he thought the girl was bluffing. He spoke sourly, more to scoff at her than to scare her. "Hey! See that you stay calm, my bag has the last Banjo Power comic in it". Ben moved a finger and moved the chair under the table using the Force, returning to stare at the gap.

 

Rey stifled a further explosion of inner anger while continuing to count "... two".

 

Ben's expression became menacing. "You know I would probably go to the Dark side if anyone even thinks about touching my comics."

 

Rey pronounced the last number by changing the expression "...two and a half... three."

 

A movement of Rey's fingers and the backpack next to him caught fire.

 

"Kriff!" Ben said widening his almost desperate pupils "You can use Force! Idiot... "

 

Rey blew on her fingers as if they were smoking guns.

 

The boy did not like the challenge and with a movement of his fingers he recalled from the outside an anomalous wave that opened the window wide, turned off the small fire and overwhelmed Rey as she was still standing in front of the chair. Finally, with a little variation of the strength, the door of their hut opened, letting all the water coming in through the window flow out.

 

The two youth and the droid followed the silent movement of the water. Rey remained with her mouth wide open as she moved a hermit crab that had got stuck in her hair but was able to take it off. He spat two small fish and spilled water from his boots.

 

In the general silence, Rey watched his wet clothes glued to his body, barely able to understand how she had not yet managed to pass to the Dark side out of sheer anger, and decided at that the moment had arrived to solve the little issue with the standard method used on Jakku. Fight!

 

She pounced on the boy like a hungry beat with the clear intention of tearing into him. At that point he reacted amused keeping her away from his body with only the extension of his arm. It seemed to delight him as he continued provoking her by throwing all the chalks placed under the blackboard at her but not by use of the Force, throwing with his fingers it was much more fun and while he was pulling them and striking them in the face he counted aloud! “1, 2, 3, .... 27, ... 34...."But this was only the beginning.

 

Another spin of Ben's index and the colored paint tubes laid neatly on the table under the window opened and smeared on the young Jedi's head, making her head and her dress not only wet but also very bright and colorful. A riot of water and color commenced.

 

Rey's patience was over. "Damn it, Ben!"

 

Rey lifted him from his chair, causing him to slam against the blackboard using the Force, at which point the boy's gaze changed completely, he almost seemed to be looking at her for the first time. " Who are on earth are you? " He said staring at her with a look full of amazement.

 

His smile widened, not only because seeing her angered in that way would have made anyone laugh but especially for the last pleasant discovery, the girl was a Force sensitive. Powerful with the Force, worthy of his attention.

 

"You can use Force?" He said raising his eyebrows. His pupils lit up, overflowing with sparks and a strange energy. He looked at her, looking more closely at the shapes of her body wrapped in the wet dress, and she almost had the feeling that he was literally stripping her with his eyes as he held her steady with an incredible wave of energy.

 

With the Force, he pushed her gently against the wall. His eye vibrated in the effort as the girl resisted.

 

Rey reacted more by the desire to cover herself than by a fit of rage and as he looked at her as if he wanted to cross her, his defiant look brought her back to the interrogation room and to the bond that had been created on that occasion.

 

With a huge effort, Rey tried to pull his arms off the wall while C-3PO was screaming in prey to a hysterical attack.

 

"Guys what you're doing?" The droid paced back and forth, not knowing what to do. "For heaven's sake, stop it! "

 

But Rey wanted to respond to his challenge without showing fear. She forcibly moved the boy's body trying to make him fall to the ground.

 

Ben tried to avoid the fall without succeeding and in that moment of distraction the same Force that had her pinned to the wall she was able to divert to him. Rey rose victoriously trying to catch her breath as she watched the boy fall over in front of her.

 

The young man fell forward slamming his face on the ground in that hollow among the pebbles of the floor where the water had made a puddle. It was no accident, it was the exact position in which Rey hoped to see spare his nose.

 

The boy stood up, wiping his face and looking at her defiantly, but his face was decidedly amused and surprised by Rey's strength.

 

He reached out a hand recalling his power. She countered her energy. He gritted his teeth in a grin of pain. Another effort in the Force, new energy to push her back against the wall, but this time his grip was much more determined and without any doubt Rey even managed to feel a shiver of passion hidden in the bottom of his marble face.

 

Rey felt his hands resting on her hips in the Force without being able to react. She saw him approaching her with his height.

 

His shadow dimmed her light. An evil smile.

 

Rey reacted using the Force too to keep him from approaching. He laughed, it seemed like the first time he found someone to match and this certainly excited him in ways that were not entirely understandable. His chin stood up, he wrinkled his nose as if to make her understand how superior he was.

 

Rey was not intimidated by his showing his teeth. But his grip with the Force was decidedly tight.

 

The young prince understood his advantage by deciding to profane her thoughts. His greatest victory. A barely mentioned smile. The voice of someone who knows that he can take what he wants... "You know I can do it? "

 

Rey winced at the feeling of his meddling in her head, entering her mind like a thin blade but the perception was much more than ethereal, a form of almost carnal possession that left her breathless. The beats rose in her ears, almost deafening them. Clouded thoughts. A strange sense of fear.

 

The girl began to sweat and to breathe in a hurried way, realizing that the more his heart accelerated the more he approached her body and the more she could feel his sensations and his hands that now were holding her down on her pelvis and kept her there with his smug look and his mocking smile.

 

For a brief moment, something luminous enveloped his reflections by knotting them in a dark, long and flowing thought like the snake's body. A snake that wanted to melt their lights and more the chiaroscuro of their spirits was united and more their spirits burned, a strange feeling connected them with a sense of belonging, and the more they felt bound and the more the emotion grew.

 

That strC-3PO was in a panic. "Come on guys, stop it, you're destroying the whole classroom.” He went on to him "Master Solo, please, this is not how you treat a lady!" Then to her "Miss Rey, do not argue like that with a prince, remember you are a lady! Good behaviour. Please!"

 

For a brief instant their hearts and their beats lined up in an incredible geography of thoughts, the images flowed between their minds, crossing the bodies with a strange and warm energy. An energy that grew with every breath.

 

Ben stopped in front of her a few millimeters from her frame, with a look about that she was not familiar with, she was unsure if he was more offended or desired her, she was unable to confidently understand, because somehow the energy that filtered through their Light sides were confused, it was something much more like a hug than a challenge.

 

When their eyes met, they were aligned like two twin moons, a flame lit up.

 

The flame that made his heart stop: "You… scavenger..." and stretched her arms toward his “...Ben…."

 

Rey said this, opening her lips as if to kiss that invisible halo of the prince and gently touching her hips though the Force. He winced, losing his mind, making him shiver as she conquered everything, everything.

 

He closed the distances as if it were the only possible choice... she stood still as if she was still imprisoned in the web of Force or only in the light of his eyes.

 

Rey felt his scent closer and when his breath feathered down on her neck for a moment she closed her eyes letting his take possession of everything he wanted.

 

A single moment of infinity made up only of wind and the Force.

 

Then she reacted, interrupting that strange sense of union.

 

A slate slid off its frame and ended up on the boy's head, knocking him back onto the floor. Hands placed against the floor. His eyes looking in the air, overwhelmed by the power of the girl and still resting on her more with desire than offense... while rewinding the tape of his thoughts the image on focused on the girl's wrists as they released her from the wall to grasp his chin vigorously .

 

His breathing became even more breathless. His eyes like the ocean.

 

Rey spoke and her voice was almost contained in a glow of Force, their gaze aligned like two planets in orbit around the same Star.

 

A finger from Rey settled on his half-closed lips. A few words decided..."It does not work like that". Ben's eyes burned in a million questions. Rey formulated his answer:

 

"You must become the man who deserves me."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writer corner:
> 
> Please feed the inspiration fairy with a kudos or comment.  
> If you want to read this story in Italian and English click here. https://efpfanfic.net/viewstory.php?sid=3816502
> 
> *****  
> Each chapter was written by: @shaara-2 (Zag_Star on Ao3)  
> Beta and translator: @sourdoughserenity, @giostyle-inspo.  
> Other Help: @mrsockman  
> Really Thank you to @mrsmancuspia and @spiegatrixlestrange for your wonderful image and for helping me in all possible ways.  
> Star Wars arrives from far, far distant galaxy. Reylo unites us.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This story is a romantic REYLO fairy tale. I hope it will make you laugh, dream, and cheer your time.
> 
> For read it in Italian and English go here :) <https://efpfanfic.net/viewstory.php?sid=3823811>

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story was written for the anthology Reylo Charity Antology. I would like to thank everyone who participated in this charity initiative. Special thanks to @ZoeXanthellae for your help and friendship in every work I do.

Chapter 7 (English)

 

The day after their fight, Ben and Rey both decided to ignore each other; at first, it seemed like a passing game, but the days soon turned into weeks and weeks quickly become months.

 

She stayed hidden between Finn and Poe and he was perpetually on the sidelines.

Rey watched him.

She watched him in the morning when he went to the cafeteria to have breakfast.

 

She would watch him eating with elegance, always sitting in a corner away from everyone else, his expression haunting her. Sometimes she would get lost in the details of his face. His scar became thinner every day, his dark hair looked weightless, his fleshy mouth shut in his solitary pout.

 

He would pass by obstinately, without taking notice of anyone, avoiding any form of contact that was not necessary to carry out his projects, and then he would vanish as a shadow disappears in the wind.

 

And he was absent even when seen in the classroom. She would enter the room to find him looking the other way, not a smile, not even a grimace, he never spoke to her and pretended not to have her next to him, but she knew that somehow, he could feel her presence.

 

She was a constant presence, almost an obsession, the present run over by the sharp passing of faint memories. She was a fixed thought, a worm in the mind, a sandy life that dissolves like a castle of salt every time that their eyes meet by mistake.

 

And every time their eyes met all their thoughts crashed into each other like a crystal ball exploding into a thousand pieces. Pieces that hurt and hurt, pieces of history, pieces of memory, pieces of the present, pieces of a past that she would prefer to become the real future once again, but she dared to be nothing but a broken glass mirror.

 

And Rey knew it was the same for him.

 

 

She felt it inside him, in the emptiness that gripped his heart, the sense of anger, in the constant rancor, she knew it from the waves she liked to watch, that broke against the cliff like the feeling of his absence that brought the crack of pain, rises in the wind, drowns in the sea, but she can not help but think about it and every day is the same.

 

She knew it from the trees and the leaves that she greeted every day as if they were people.

The trees knew it, they knew all the answers. They had seen too many lives run their course to be able to forget this one. Silently speaking and giving advice, advice that no one listens, tips that fly in the wind and turn into noise.

 

So, she starts running, Rey jogged every morning, she would get up and quickly take the path that lead from her hut on Ahch-To to the top of the promontory where Luke had once given her first lesson.

 

Rey searched for the balance in the Force, she looked for it in the wind, looked for it in the sea, searched for it in the void that hung in front of the cliffs. The rock that she had broken with her sword in a fit of rage. The rock where Luke had once made his last move to defeat Kylo Ren an along with his, the ghosts of a past too heavy and a future too light to be held in his hands, but Luke had taken it.

 

He had given his life for this and in the end, had learned from his mistakes and even if it was not yet clear to anyone at the moment, in the end he had won.

 

He had won against Kylo Ren, teasing him, letting him see how futile his anger and his unlimited pursuit of power were, how unhappy his life was without having the people he loved around and how infinitely stupid he was to hold tight on his pride. Even if it seemed as though it was absurd to think so, at that precise moment, Luke had already won.

 

Kylo Ren had put aside his pride to look for her and in doing so he had allowed it to destroy him with his search. Now Rey regretted having betrayed him to the Resistance, because she realized that the glimmer that Luke had just opened within him - finally it was wide open, however trivially small it was - he had done it for love. And she had allowed them to erase it along with his last memory and …all that we could not remember... can happen again.

 

And so, she began to run harder to escape from all that she had conquered and lost, from her doubts, from her broken hopes, from the memory of the never-ending loneliness she endured and from the smell of the desert that had stained her heart.

 

She ran every morning, she would get up and start running fast, have breakfast on the fly, wave goodbye to her friends. While they were still talking to her, she would suddenly turn back round, as if she could not stay to resume her path. Her feet flew light and non-stop, except for a single break: to train as Leia considered necessary.

 

She would come to the lesson all sweaty and hoped that he’d not even take notice, sometimes he just said hello, at other times nothing at all - not even a word, and so as the lessons ended again she would start running to the rock. That stone she had broken with the Legacy sword when Kylo Ren was still just her enemy. Now that stone sliced in two was all that remained of a previous life, when he was a man so lost to insist on searching for her across the universe.

 

Rey would stay there for a long time to meditate on that stone. She clung to that rock, climbed it to feed upon the wind and fury of the spray. A dark wind filled with a power she had given up on. A power that made her want to scream but she did not, she contained everything as if she were holding her breath, as if she could swallow the sea and come evening again, after sunset she would run again.

 

She ran until her legs were unable to move, to return tired into her bed and manage to sleep, but this was never an easy thing... there was no rest from their remorse.

 

So, every night she remained motionless in bed, watching the twin moons mirror each other, observing the stars, combing her loneliness and hoping for a better day tomorrow.

 

***

 

It was morning when she entered the cafeteria feeling bewildered.

Finn joined her at the table for hot drinks. He noted her unkempt hair and the deep dark circles under her eyes. He moved his head in disappointment and began to talk to her.

 

"Will you tell me what's happening to you?” he said, grabbing her by the arm as she tried to get up to escape his questions.

 

"Nothing, why do you ask?" Rey lowered her eyes from his and freed herself from his grip.

 

 

"Rey." Finn softened his look. "For weeks now, all you do is show up to eat real quick and then leave. You don’t stay and talk with us anymore. What's bothering you? Even Poe is worried, and we do not know what to do. Is it the fault of that monster?”

 

"It’s nothing Finn, it's all right, I'm just very busy with my studies. I have to prepare myself to take the Jedi oath.” Rey's voice was almost a whisper.

 

That wasn’t enough to reassure him, in fact what she said made his heart explode. "Oh, really, is that all? But you are not yourself!” Finn looks puzzled and angry. "Are you sure it's not his fault?"

 

"No, I assure you, it's not him, we do not even talk to each other.” Rey lowered her eyes as her heart began to weep.

 

 

"Are you sure?" Finn's gaze was tense, so Rey looked back up to try and convince him that all was ok, but instead she noticed his lip tremble like a nervous tic. "Finn, is everything ok with you?"

 

"Rey, don’t turn this question around on me! Answer me for real - is it Kylo Ren's fault?" Finn grabbed both her hands, squeezing tightly. Rey opened her eyes in surprise. Finn had never grabbed both of them in that way before.

 

Suddenly she felt that all of the yes in the mess hall where upon them. Silence descended upon the great hall. Rey and Finn looked at each other for a moment.

 

Rey was shocked by his rough handling of her, she was probably going to end up with a bruise.

 

All eyes were focused on them. Rey saw someone coming out of the shadowy corner of the room. It was Ben, spectating the scene.

 

Ben watched her without speaking, but his gaze looked displeased. Rey almost has a mini heart attack when their eyes met. For a moment, it seemed to her that he was about to get up. The boy laid his hands on the table, clenching his fists in a nervous rush, then held his arms down as if he were about to snap. He looked at her almost angrily, opening his mouth, then, maybe he changed his mind: he pursed his lips and sat down, lowering his eyes. She kept looking at him until their eyes met again along the same trajectory.

 

Finn felt all of the gazes from the room held on him and began to apologize. "I'm sorry, Rey, I’m sorry. I do not know what got ahold of me.”

 

"Don’t worry Finn - it's nothing.” Rey took a deep breath, leaving Finn at his seat and started running again.

 

 

***

 

 

"Miss Rey of Jakku, even today, all sweaty in class. That not very ladylike "

 

C-3PO reproached her like this every morning. "If you want to become a real Jedi, discipline and respect is needed!"

 

Rey grunted and lowered her head as C-3PO continued to rant excitedly in his prim way. She looked up, and turned to look at the young man sitting next to her. It was the first time he was taking any notice of her in a long time. Rey shuddered, for a moment her heart stopped. He parted his lips, breathing slowly as if to say something, but it is only a moment, and the moment passes. Ben lowered his eyes and she felt a hole in her stomach. It was like the sun was missing.

 

She sighed and he started to stare at her, once again she felt as tho the gaze traversed her like a thick needle, she tried to maintain a stare back, but it was as if he had brought a flaming torch inside the training hall with him. Breathing became harder and harder and the words of C-3PO fell into the air as if they were in another language. They crumbled in the fire of her emotions while he continued to wait. He stared at her so intensely that she thought she would lose herself among the green and hazel flecks of his eyes. His pupils start to quiver. Rey mulls over how he was making her feel as her head began spinning and the world around her felt distant, like she was looking through a fog of emotions. Her heart fluttered within her chest like it needed to migrate across and ocean. The emotions were like a tide that overwhelmed her and she was unsure whether to let herself go with it or row counter-current.

 

She got up as if she were dancing in the waves, leaving the room while C-3PO tried to keep talking to her. She could hear his cries as she exited the little hut but she could not go back in that class and have to tolerate his stares. It made her feel weak and full of remorse - and this upset her more than anything.

 

She resumed her jogging but this time he followed her. She turned and saw that he was running after her. His legs were longer and he was about to reach her but she was determined to not let him catch up; she did not want to admit her weakness, so she ran harder. Her feet flew, almost not touching the ground. Rows of trees and vegetation appeared streaking at her sides.

 

She arrived at her stone; by now it had become a personal item for her. As she reached it, her lungs felt like they were going to burst from the effort... But he was still there behind her, he continued to stare at her, and she was unsure whether if he wanted to destroy her or just hug her. She couldn’t help but walk backwards until she bumped against the boulder hanging above the cliff face. His shadow approached and subsumed her.

 

Rey begins to gasp as his eyes scanned her, moving all along her figure. Ben took another step, narrowing the little gap that was left between them. He bent over her and his breathing became more oppressive, his eyes resting upon her lips were filled with empathy, he was so close that she could feel the warmth of his face and the scent of his dark hair licked by the wind...

 

Rey gasped deeply to catch her breath as she waited for some form of contact. She was quivering at the idea that he would touch her. She yearned for it. Her mind lost all form of logic or control while waiting for contact - but he did nothing, other than just look at her.

 

His eyes moved away from her mouth without ever touching her as she gasped for breath. He silently tucked away a lock of hair that had wrested its way free from her buns without ever really making contact with her skin. The sun illuminated her face. Suddenly he spoke into her ear, without ever daring to settle on her skin, but with every word the energy in her body waved as if she had fallen into the sea, without knowing where to hang on and she knew that he could feel her angst.

 

She desperately hoped that he would do something while she shivered with desire, but he did nothing and just talked.

 

"You are Force sensitive: why didn’t you defend yourself?"

 

Her body faltered in confusion. She closed her eyes, hoping for a kiss, but all of the heat disappeared.

 

When she reopened them again, he was already gone.

 

 

***

 

"Rey, dear, sit on that chair. I have to talk to you."

 

Leia summoned her to her hut, which also served as a personal office.

She watched her carefully as she tightened her fists.

 

Normally Leia sat behind a large dark wooden table, very similar to ebony, and listened to ambassadors of distant planets or questionable military figures that propose themselves as allies.

 

Over the past year, hiding in the Outer Rim, numerous groups had joined the Resistance, and not just groups of armed rebels, but also people or aliens persecuted by the First Order, slaves, the poor of all kinds, but the situation was still changing.

 

After the capture and apparent adherence to the Resistance of Kylo Ren, hope was reborn throughout the universe. From that moment an incredible number of new allies had arrived on the small planet, where the Resistance was hiding, to arrive at an agreement. At first, they were only insignificant representatives of various sects or parties, but then the consuls arrived, the ambassadors, then the ministers and diplomats and finally the heads of state or royalty of entire galaxies.

 

Rey could recognize them from their courts, their sumptuous clothes, their ephemeral and haughty look and their little quirks designed to identify them as different or superior to those who followed them with the same luxurious clothes and a careful look at every little signal, a weakness, which might represent a turning point in the wheel of power. A fall that everyone was waiting in line, waiting for their turn.

 

 

Rey had seen many aliens like them in Canto Bright, rich, wealthy faceless men, fallen nobles, bored bourgeoisie with no compass to guide their morals, Kings and Queens of exterminated lands, weakling heirs, princes waiting for a crown. Only one thing united all these people, and that was their sense of superiority due to their origins. That their bloodlines could traced back in the history books made the difference between being someone and being nothing.

 

The girl looked down at her hands worn by the sun and from a lifetime of past work taking apart wreckage, the unmistakable sign of her lower position throughout this picture.

 

Leia got up and went over her table to sit next to Rey, taking her hands.

 

"My dear, you have sacrificed a lot for us. " The princess tilted her head to one side, examining Rey as she approached her... "I see you are tired lately, how are you?"

 

"Well General, well, I'm just tired from the lessons." Rey tried hard to sound convincing.

 

"Rey," Leia started talking again with a smile. "A delegation from Falleen will soon be with us. You see, my adoptive mother, Breha Antilles Organa, was Queen of Alderaan. At one time my adoptive family was linked to a noble family of the Sizhran House. "

 

"With their origins tracing back, a long time ago in the deep past, the two perpetually conflicting families had made an agreement to marry at least one heir from the two houses to each other, to avoid the perpetuation of the war."

 

"My adoptive mother broke this agreement by marrying Senator Bail Organa. It was a big scandal back then and we kept talking about my family when I too refused Xizor, the heir to the throne, to marry Han instead. "

 

Rey remained petrified. What was she trying to tell her?

 

Leia watched the young girl hold her breath and took her hand, laughing. "By now these are forgotten things, my dear, but our families have nevertheless remained in peace. After the death of Xizor his sister took the throne and now they have decided to join us in the fight against the First Order. They will arrive tomorrow."

 

 

"Okay," Rey said, sighing.

 

Organa spread with a smile. "Tomorrow we will have a chance to verify your learning."

 

"You mean so I can become a Jedi? " Rey looked at her, puzzled. "I'm not ready. I don’t even have a lightsaber.”

 

"Have you thought to ask Ben to help you? Even though he does not remember much, at the age of 15 he had already spent five years at the Jedi school with Luke.” Leia's voice was sweet and enveloping.

 

Rey lowered her eyes. Her soul is suspended. "We do not talk much."

 

Leia smiled and approached her. "My son has always been nosy, but it's just a matter of time, he's a shy boy, but he will slowly warm up." Organa held her breath and searched for the right words.

 

"See, after a long time... I have come to understand that he feels lonely.” Leia lifted her gaze to the sky.

 

“Yes, “ Rey replied with a surprised and angry expression, “except that he does everything he can to remove anyone who tries to come close to him!"

 

"Yes" continues Leia "but it's a defense. In truth he feels different. He is very powerful in strength and others have always avoided him for fear of his power, however, I thought... if you could train a little more with him using the Force.... Perhaps he would feel less alone... "

 

Rey greeted the General's hopeful gaze, she nodded a yes with her head pondering how to capture his attention.

 

Organa moved behind the table, taking a bottle of water from a dark piece of furniture behind the table and fills two glasses, handing one to the girl.

 

Both drink while looking at the glasses then Leia turns from behind.

 

Rey gets up thinking that the dialogue is over, but as she walks through the door of the hut the princess calls her again.

 

"Rey? "The girl turns. "I wanted to tell you one more thing..." Organa puts her hands on the table, her eyes are strong. "Do you really want to become a Jedi? "

 

Rey remains motionless. Leia watches her as she opens her lips and hangs in a confused state. "Do you know that the Jedi are sworn in loyalty and chastity? ".

 

Now she is trembling as she seeks an answer that truly belongs to her. The girl lowers her eyes and her face becomes hard. "I will do what the cause asks me, if this is my destiny... I will do what is necessary." Rey's heart explodes in a tumult of conflicting emotions.

 

Leia hears them in the crack of the Force, but for now her intent seems enough. She smiles and kisses her on the forehead, takes her hands again.

 

"I knew I could count on you" and left the room.

 

Rey is still motionless in front of the table and the small window that lights up the hut. Outside it is sunny and the day is clear, but winter has fallen into its heart.

 

***

 

Less than half an hour passed from her conversation with Leia when Rey and Ben saw each other again.

 

They met in the cafeteria, while she was in line to get some rice. Poe and Finn surrounded her.

Her heart burned every time she met his eyes. She pretended not to look at him but tried to figure out his position in the crowd of people lining up for the meal by surreptitiously peering up.

 

Rose approached and said something in her ear. Finn stiffened as Poe patted him on the shoulder and they moved away from her.

 

Rey smiled and wished that Finn was less shy. Her tray full of food, she went to go talk to him but she was so distracted by a thousand thoughts that she ended up slamming the tray against someone. It collided with someone’s massive, hard back. The owner turned around, furious. Every liquid thing on her tray, the soup, the water, the caf, they’d all spilled onto the back of his shirt. Rey bent over to collect the cutlery and everything else that had fallen from the tray. She glanced upward, grimacing, and took a step backwards upon recognizing his face.

 

 

Ben stared at her with an annoyed expression and fire in his eyes as he moved his hands, dropping a green slime from his tray. Her fingers moved quickly. His eyes flashed at her. It seemed that he was about hit her. He raised a hand to invoke the Force but then did nothing, just standing there still with his penetrating gaze fixed on her.

 

 

Rey moved her mouth, searching for words with which to apologize. She was still sitting on the ground when a strange sense of heat caught her, their Force connection suddenly switched on and the sensations were too strong to react to, so she stayed still and breathless as they studied each other, each inside an ocean of thoughts of the other. She knew it could happen again but she did not think it would have been this way, nor so soon.

 

They remain motionless, their eyes lost, wordless. Time seems suspended but only from her point of view.

Finn bowed to her to lift her up. He spoke to her as he wrapped an arm around her waist. She leaned on him, letting herself be helped up, but the vibrations in the bond were still too strong for her.

 

Rey felt his anger, his fear and a strange sense of possession that was spreading throughout him, stealing space from all the other emotions like a fury. His fists closed as Ben's gaze fell on Finn's big hands trying to lift Rey up. A match lit inside him and and Ben exploded, closing his raised hand and using the Force to place a choke hold on Finn.

 

As the girl turned around, she saw Finn lifted off the ground, strangled in the grip of Kylo Ren, whose face wa contorted in a mask of rage. Finn was shaking, trying to get out of the grip inescapably tightening around him, and looked terrified as everyone ran away from the cafeteria. Poe was holding Finn now, as if he were a hanged man dangling from the rope and holding him up could somehow prevent the noose from tightening any further. Rose got up from her place and ran towards them.

 

How could she stop his fury? Rey did the first thing that came to her mind. In the distance, she saw Leia with some doctors running towards them.

 

Rey extends a hand to Ben's face. She had to stand on tiptoes to reach him but she did it slowly, drawing up the Light side of the Force as she did so. The moment her fingers touch him, he shifted his attention away from Finn and relaxed his hands, closing his eyes and letting her Light overwhelm him. The Dark intensity of his anger dispersed, and he suddenly looked as though he had returned home from a hike, breathing heavily, his face close to hers.

 

"I thought he would hurt you."

 

Rey almost fainted from that strange bond that became suddenly even more amplified as they touched, but she gathered her breath and turned to look at Finn. Rose was holding his hand while Poe was leaning over him.

 

His friends lovingly spoke with him and Rey flashed a short smile at him, seeing Finn talk to Rose the way she once did.

 

She turned to Ben. "You should not have done that." But she ended up speaking to the wind, because he had already walked away.

 

 

***

 

It was afternoon and still several minutes before it was time to resume lessons.

 

Rey spent some time with her friends. Seeing Rose and Finn talking to each other again made her forget what had happened in the cafeteria. Poe and Rey smiled at each other, letting Rose and Finn talk to each other until they were out of breath.

 

 

"Where did we go wrong?" Rose asked him, looking at Finn in the eye.

 

"Maybe we went too fast, and did not know how to stop?" He answered, probing every breath with a look.

 

"Can we try again?" The emotion spreads among their bodies waiting for an answer. "I think.... I'd like to..." Finn says with a whisper.

 

Rey and Poe raised their eyebrows, pretending they had other things to do. They left the room, wandering outside and moved slowly towards the beach.

 

The sandy parts of Ahtch-Too beach were its only pleasant access points to the sea. The rocky promontory behind their shoulders calmed the cold ocean wind while they sat on the shore talking.

 

"What did Kylo Ren want from you?"

 

Rey looked at the sea, letting herself be lulled by the gentle sound of the waves.

 

"I think he wanted to defend me."

 

Poe forehead furrowed, as if what Rey had just said did not make sense. She smiled at him, feeling more certain of it all. "He was also angry the other day when Finn grabbed me hard," Rey said, watching the waves crash on the shore. "He is not someone who communicates very well. When we study together he never says anything. Never."

 

Poe looked at her perplexed. "Do you think he really doesn't remember anything?? "

 

Rey thought of Ben, how desperate he was looking for her in the casino, and of the last few moments she'd spent with him when he was still a prisoner. She thought back to his hands, his warm lips, and her thoughts flew.

Flying over the waves, on the small granite peaks of the island, flying over the porgs that nestle among the rocks and fall in the echo of his last words. "We have our bond. Even if I have to forget you, my heart will look for you until it finds what it seeks, until you're mine. " Her heart beat faster.

 

"So, what do you think?" Said Poe, continuing to look at her.

 

"What?" Rey returns from her shivery state. Suddenly she heard a thick sound in her ears and a new tear in the Force opened. She knew that Ben was there. She stood up and turned and saw him against the light. He is standing on top of the boulder she had cut in two searching for him, then disappeared again from her sight.

 

She started walking in the direction of the boulder.

 

Poe called to her, raising his voice as she walked away from him. "Where are you going?"

 

Rey thought of Finn and Rose holding hands. She screamed back... "No, he doesn't remember anything!" and started running.

 

She ran, and disappeared from Poe’s sight.

 

***

 

Rey ran and ran. She arrived near the boulder, searching for him with her heart in her throat, until she found him through the Force. His signature was so strong she knew that he must be near.

 

She slowed down to a walk, trying to get enough air back into her lungs after the long sprint up the hill.

 

There was no trace of him, but then she walked over to peer down the circular crevice splitting the rock and found his clothes.

Rey looked down into the dark hole at the black water rocking gently underneath her. She saw nothing but water inside, but knew that he must be there. She could hear the Dark side of the Force calling for her a second time. But she no longer wanted to see her own reflection without an answer.

 

She thought back at Luke's words. "You must resist the Dark Side."

 

Sudden dizziness caused her to sway at the call of the darkness. What should I do? she thought, in search of support, but there was no one to help her and she didn’t know whether to throw herself in or continue trying to resist its call.

 

She looked back down at his clothes thrown everywhere, and finally she decided, she closed her eyes and jumped in for the hole to swallow her.

 

She leaped into the black water and re-emerged in the cave she already knew. The last time she had been there, she had asked about her parents and only saw herself as an answer. It had not been a good experience for her.

But now she was there for him. Scanning around the cave, she saw him following a tiny flame.

 

Ben was naked, his skin wet, and he looked back at her wearing all the fury of hell on his face. He approached her slowly as she winced, perplexed, staring at his marble frame. Her heart rose in her throat and she could not help but notice the cold that clasped at her wet clothes. For a moment everything disappeared. Her mind was occupied only by him, his figure illuminated in the Dark sensitive cavern.

 

"I was waiting for you." Ben says, tilting his face towards her and holding out a hand.

 

Rey watched his fingers tremble in anticipation.

 

He stared at her without doing anything, just listening to her breath as if it were the only thing he had the energy to do in that moment.

 

She stood still.

 

He took another step forward in her direction. Now his whole body was shaking. Rey looked at him, confused.

 

Ben was so close that he could touch her hand and she knew that she was about to get lost in his big, soulful eyes. The warmth of his fingers suddenly burned her skin, breaking her soul to the center. She let him intertwine his fingers between hers and let herself go to the mercy of her senses. Perhaps the darkness was not entirely negative.

 

She looked at him as if she were going to plunge into the abyss as the Darkness enveloped them. Ben's gaze moved from her eyes to her mouth and she thought, This will be the death of me.

 

Perhaps there would be no death sweeter than his lips.

 

Now that their hands were touching, she could feel his energy. It started from the bottom of his core and merged into every cell of his body, vibrating with a hidden desire for the Light, with Darkness, with cold. Intense cold. He unlinked their fingers, and placed his hands on her hips.

 

"You have to undress or you will get frostbite." Ben was losing the last of his rational thinking.

 

She started to take off her clothes as he watched her with his heart in his hand. Her incoherent heartbeats echoed throughout the cave like drums.

 

The girl decided to stay in her underwear while he looked her up and down. His eyes return to study her. Ben took her hand again, this time with a little more courage. Rey shuddered, fearing that the oxygen in the cave was about to run out; the contours of the cave began to blur, wrapped in a black smoke.

 

Ben spoke to her, lowering his face to hers. She felt him trembling even more fiercely as he tried to talk. His low voice is practically just a breath of wind; perhaps it would be the last thing she remembered as she crashed in anticipation of something, precisely what she wasn’t sure. Rey closed her eyes and savored his words as he touched her face with his lips.

 

"Are you ready?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writer corner:
> 
> Please feed the inspiration fairy with a kudos or comment.  
> If you want to read this story in Italian and English click here. https://efpfanfic.net/viewstory.php?sid=3816502
> 
> *****  
> Each chapter was written by: @shaara-2 (Zag_Star on Ao3)  
> Beta and translator: @sourdoughserenity, @giostyle-inspo.  
> Other Help: @mrsockman  
> Really Thank you to @mrsmancuspia and @spiegatrixlestrange for your wonderful image and for helping me in all possible ways.  
> Star Wars arrives from far, far distant galaxy. Reylo unites us.


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> This story is a romantic REYLO fairy tale. I hope it will make you laugh, dream, and cheer your time.  
> Thank you for read it!

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This story was written for the anthology Reylo Charity Antology. I would like to thank everyone who participated in this charity initiative. Special thanks to @ZoeXanthellae for your help and friendship in every work I do.

Chapter 8 (English)

 

In the officers' cabin, people and aliens came and went in a frenzy. General Hux, who proclaimed himself Supreme Leader after Kylo’s disappearance, meditated on the details of military operations to the officers of the highest ranks of the First Order.

 

After his apparent membership to the Resistance the fate of the war had changes. More armies and galactic alliances joined his enemies many were by now completely loyal to the ideologies of the Rebellion.

 

Bringing Kylo back to the dark side had become a fundamental issue for the survival of the First Order. The cancellation of his memory had gone around as news to the whole universe to the point of being still on the front pages of the news and magazines of all the galaxy in and out of the Outer Rim despite months having passed.

 

His defeat represented in a sense the vulnerability not only of the dark side but also of the First Order which had made him its symbol of darkness. The fact that the resistance had captured the last Sith representative still alive, bending him into light, was such an affront to the ideology of order that it was necessary to give a strong signal to the whole Galaxy.

 

Bounty hunters, mercenaries and secret services were all engaged in the search for Kylo Ren, but for now there was no news of him.

 

Like every morning since his passing, Hux and his generals stood together in front of a large oval table. The mood of the new Supreme Leader had grown sour and the leaders feared his vindictive nature more than anything.

 

With Kylo gone, the situation of the First Order had become decidedly worse. Hux ruled everything and everyone with an iron fist and his only strategy both inside and outside the military ranks seemed only violence and abuse. This had increased and facilitated new rebel alliances and every time that news came of a new planet that had joined the rebellion his mood slipped lower and lower in the abyss of madness.

 

"General, how are the searches going? " Armitage looked up at the men around the table, revealing a disgusted grin of their inability to achieve the expected result.

 

A voice broke the silence with a cough. A dark, wrinkled hand shifted a long braid that gathered its thin straw-colored hair to the side. "Sir, we have not found any trace yet, it's possible that they removed his tracker.” General Macnuc, a middle-aged Weequay, stroked the deep gray wrinkles on his face, looking at a map.

 

"You see, Supreme Leader, these are all the planets we have been looking for, the galaxy is vast, you understand.... and those Resistance snakes have the population on their side. "

 

Hux brought his hands to his chin raising a lip. "Those cowardsfrom the Resistance..."

 

General Macnuc began to speak firmly. "If you could put a price on him... Maybe there’s even someone inside the Resistance who would want the money..."

 

"A bounty, you say?" Armitage looked at the Weequay thoughtfully, staring at him with his treacherous pale eyes. "Well, it seems like a great idea!" Hux smiled, curling his full lips while his eyes maintained their frost, and turned to a young woman involved in press relations and began to dictate directions to her.

 

"Lieutenant Squitzi, transmit this information to every corner of the galaxy immediately. You will offer 200,000,000 galactic credits to anyone who provides you with news, and 100,000,000,000 galactic credits to anyone who reports him alive. "

 

***

 

Leia was resting in her room before resuming her afternoon activities. She knew that awaiting her was a frantic night she would spend organizing all the details for Queen of Falleen’s honor party scheduled for the next day.

 

The princess began flipping through photos she kept in a family photo album, locked away in her nightstand. She always carried it with her, like an heirloom. In that aged book she could see the faces from her past, the people she had loved, the people she had lost and all those who were still alive and that somehow had taken another path. A picture slipped from the book falling like a leaf from a tree in fall. It flew lightly, resting on the floor.

 

The woman grabbed it to put it back.

 

When she turned the picture over, what she saw was an image of herself as a child next to her foster father as they went together to their dark room to develop and prints from photographic film. "A little work" was the name she had noted down in the corner as a title. Certainly, Senator Bail would have liked to rest by himself, but he had never been able resist her little hands reaching out to him.

 

So, every evening he picked her up and carried her to his laboratory. The printing and development the photos were such an old technique that it was now practiced only by the very few amateur photographers, wealthy enough to practice it. It was not easy to find all the acids and the necessary solutes, but her father always knew where to find them and every evening they found each other to tear the figure out of a dark film. Like all little girls in the universe, she saw her father as a hero. A magician who could create images from nothing and sooner or later with his art would have saved Alderaan from a terrible monster.

 

Photos printed in black and white ran slowly between her fingers, her foster mother holding her by hand, photos of some uncles, feasts made in her villa. There was also the picture with Xizor when he still believed his friend. A photo of Xizor together with his sister Xizira. Who would have thought that one day she would have inherited the crown?

 

Xizira had always been a very lively girl, sometimes spiteful and fickle but very determined. Leia laughed, thinking back to all the stratagems that she invented when she wanted to win her over something. It should not have changed much since it was known throughout the galaxy that she had seduced a young ruler of the constellation Nixan just to increase her power. She found herself pregnant with the King and married him before he married her official girlfriend.

 

Leia laughed, imagining Xizira inventing millions of excuses with her shrewd parents to explain it, but as always, she won it. The parents were forced to marry her before her creature was born. A Zixia girl: she would be the heir of everything.

 

The princess caressed the photo where the little baby girl was in the mother's arms. Twenty-five years had passed since that day. Twenty-five years Leia and Xizira had not heard each other. Twenty-five years of galactic wars. It was truly incredible that only now had she contacted her to join the Resistance cause. If Alderaan had not been destroyed she would have feared that Xizira would appear to ask her to honor the old marriage agreement between the two kingdoms, but Alderaan no longer existed and her son, although still in the rank of prince, would never be without a real kingdom It was an attractive choice for the ambitious Xizira.

 

A call came through to her holopad and Leia gave up her thoughts.

 

"C3-PO, tell me what’s going on?" Leia did not think that a robot could be agitated in the way he appeared to be. " What did you say? Speaks slowly". The droid began to explain the situation by shouting hysterically, but when the problem became clear to her even she began to feel herself get caught up in anxiety. "Are you telling me that Ben and Rey did not show up for the lesson? - Did something happen between them? "

 

Leia remained silent to listen to the words of C3-PO attentively. "As always, they do not even speak the word. Ok. Is it possible that they are together now? "

 

Another avalanche of words came out of the holopad in the direction of the General. The princess raised her eyes to the sky then resumed talking to the droid. "Do not worry C3-PO: they would not have killed each other, I would be able to hear him in the Force, but stay where you are, I will try to organize a search party. "

 

***

 

" Are you ready? "

 

Rey and Ben found themselves inside the Dark Side-sensitive cavern. How did it come to this? she can not say it for sure, but the vicissitudes of her life had taken a toll on her, ever since she first met Kylo Ren, who every time she felt that their paths had come to a final crossroads, the path deformed and expanded itself further as if they were trapped inside a black hole, where everything that seemed to be the end - returns and be a new beginning.

 

Rey felt conflicted over how the past events had changed her. The good, the evil, the Light and the Darkness, everything moved within the waltz of their shared thoughts.

 

The cold of the water, the darkness and the humidity of the cave, the icy roughness of the floor, the sweat that slides from her skin, the beats that mark time, the warmth of Ben's hand that envelops her and the few fragments of energy that molded though it all, thought, disturbance, emotion, to make them one thing. A combination of bones and chills wrapped in a light-dark aura.

 

Passion, strength, power, triumph and freedom from every moral bond. All the Dark side's wicked materials laid before her, vibrating in and around their raw, wet bodies. The material spectrum feed their encounter.

 

Ben raised a hand to touch the skin of her hips, his eyes followed the light caress that he drew on her. Just enough to have made her tremble as his fingers passed.

 

"Do you feel cold? " He watched her skin freeze up under his touch.

 

Rey swallowed, hypnotized by his gaze. "A little...", she replied softly, not realizing that Ben was trembling.

 

"Maybe I could warm you up."

 

Rey returned the same penetrating gaze that he had been giving her, her lips parting slightly. Then the young man lowered his face towards her, but realizing that his briefs were beginning to feel tight, he blushed, feeling ashamed as he looked at Rey who was busy staring wide-eyed at him.

 

Ben grimaced, saying, "I'm afraid that if I get any closer to you to warm you up... I'll be a little cumbersome..." He ran a hand through his hair, embarrassed and red in the face.

 

Rey smiled uncomfortably. Her excitement was not obvious like that of a man’s, but she was beginning to feel wet beyond belief in that warm place between her legs. She was filled with hope that Ben would finally have the sense to help ease the desire she felt soaking through her underwear, but she found it hard to understand what he was trying to say, was he taking his offer back? "Ben?"

 

Rey's voice broke through the tension of the moment. "Cumbersome? What do you mean? " The girl continued to look at the swelling in Ben’s pants, wondering if his underwear could stretch further. They were so tight on him… she felt it too. She was anxious, her core was aching and soaked with want.

 

Ben combed his long fingers through his hair again and widened his eyes with great distress; certainly he did not seem like the Supreme Leader who longed to have her in his arms.

 

"Here... the cold is what's causing this," He said this in a serious and worried tone, drawing his arms around her shoulders.

 

Rey's eyes widened in amazement. "The cold?????? Are you sure it's just the cold? Are you sure you don’t feel anything else? " The girl could not believe it. He looked like a fumbling, inexpert teenager.

 

“An adolescent,” she thought to herself, repeating the phrase in her head ... wait - a creeping feeling struck her. "How old are you? "

 

Ben looked at her, his face practically turning purple. "I feel like I’m 15, I think I’m 15 years old!" He was stuttering now, his voice choked and breaking, as he tried to make himself smaller and smaller.

 

Rey shook her head in desperation at how stupid had she been. The anger she felt towards herself made her irritated. "You're not 15, Ben you’re 30! " But the last words turned into something more like screams, causing the young man to withdraw further.

 

Ben's eyes widened in terror. "Did I do something wrong? - I'm sorry - it's not my fault I feel..." the young man now felt awkward and lost, he took his hands off Rey as he mumbled his apology. "I'm not in charge of the thing!" His face was almost deformed by his panic as his underpants faced the breaking point due to the continuous and growing activity of the "thing" in question.

 

Every trace of desire in Rey's mind and body was now dead. She raised her eyes to the ceiling.

 

"Why did you make me come here?" The girl's shadow was reflected in the mirror of the cave.

 

"I did not ask you anything, it was you who followed me..." The two young people looked at each other without speaking for a bit. Rey began to feel impatient. She’d had enough of this farce.

 

"Ben, could you stop with this crap? What is it?"

 

Ben’s eyes widened a bit, and then he sighed deeply. "I wanted to ask you something." He looked down shyly, playing with the hair at the back of his head.

 

Rey stared at him again, approaching him further. She positioned herself just below him close enough to enter his personal space, but still far enough away from any possibility of a kiss. Rey wondered if this was still the right thing to do, she takes the initiative.

 

Ben's voice reached her before she could respond.

 

"I wanted to ask you if after dinner you would like to join me in my hut to play with me on my PlayStation YB 7000."

 

Rey could not believe it. She wanted to slap the living daylights out of him as her anger exploded inside her. She shrieked.

"Did you say PlayStation — PLAYSTATION????” 

 

Rey was sure that the Dark side was about to take possession of her completely while she screamed and shook her fingers at the ridiculous, half-naked, waved-eared teenager who was as excited as a baboon who could only say the stupidest things in the universe.

 

"Ben, at your age people start a family, you do not play PLAYSTATION!!! You made me come here to ask me this?? Ben, you haven’t spoken to me for months!!!”

 

Ben's eyes start to shine and his voice trembled. "I, here I am... I felt alone... that’s why… I asked you..."

 

Rey stood motionless and speechless, as she looked at the mirror in front of her and thought that if the reflections were alive they would just be laughing at them.

 

The man felt disappointed and saddened, he observed the change in Rey’s demeanor and threw himself back into the cold and dark waters of the cave.

 

Rey followed him; she would not let him escape so easy. He tried to dodge her grip but she kept reaching for him and finally grabbed him by the arm. She looked at him firmly. "Ben, please wait… I will happily stop by."

 

Ben smiled and blushed again. Their looked at each other. They were no longer enemies, they were not lovers, but Rey's hand resting on his arm looked like an agreement, or at least at the beginning of something.

 

They remained still for one last moment to observe each other before looking for their clothes. Studied themselves. The sun faced the horizon and his mother appeared against the light.

 

Leia found them still standing together, drinking each other in. Ben looked away only when his mother grabbed him by the wrist. He turned to her questioningly.

 

The Princess spoke, while staring at the two inquisitively.

 

"We were looking for you!"

 

"We were here..." Rey and Ben answered in unison, looking into each other's eyes.

 

"Touch your nose." Rey told the boy.

 

"What?" Ben asked, raising his eyebrows.

 

"When two people say the same thing at the same time, afterwards, they have to touch their noses. The saying is, if you don’t touch your nose, you won’t get married." Rey suddenly felt almost ashamed of what she had just said… "It's a saying in Jakku." She still felt silly. Ben continued to look at her with a sort of blank stare. "Do I really have to do it? " Then he chuckled softly and touched his nose.

 

Leia looked at them, saying, "No one is getting married." She paused for a moment to look at her son who was radiating a strange positive aura.

 

"It's been so long since I saw you laughing, my son." For a moment Leia's heart felt happy. She turned to Rey and thanked her without speaking, only a quick nod, but the girl understood what that meant. It made Rey happy. Maybe things were really working out.

 

"I had a dress brought for you for tomorrow's dance." The princess’s face turned joyful as she spoke to Rey. She was holding her son by the wrist but she looked a bit more serene, more so than before.

 

Rey opened her mouth but was unable to speak. Leia had left her a dress for the dance. “What an honor!” She thought to herself. She had never worn an elegant dress, she wondered if it would live up to the occasion. Her eyes quivered while Leia, picking up on Rey’s excitement over the whole thing, decided to encourage her further: “I have given you a dress that used to belong to my mother.” Ben’s eyes widened upon hearing his mother speak those words.

 

"You will be beautiful, my dear, even the princess of Falleen will not hold a candle to you," finished Leia.

 

Kylo turned and looked at his mother more carefully. Leia smiled back at him and continued to talk. "We should keep our pilots at bay, however."

 

The princess was struck by the enraged look that her son sent her upon hearing her, while Rey couldn’t help but laugh. "Ha, I'm sure there will not be a problem there."

 

Leia also seemed amused as she gently placed her hand on the girl’s cheek, a motherly gesture that made Rey feel uncomfortable yet happy inside. "Do not underestimate yourself, my little Jedi, do you think I did not see some among the Resistance fighters looking at you? " Ben stiffened again upon hearing these words from his mother. If anyone dared approach Rey he would have certainly have to do something about it; what exactly, he wasn’t quite sure, but he would figure it out.

 

Rey looked at him and thought - Maybe he is not totally indifferent to me after all... Her imagination began to run wild at the thought, the very same daydream that she had been having every single day since Ben had lost his adult memory. That he remembered her again, and that they could be together.

 

Maybe he felt her in their bond or maybe it was just the frustration of a young man, but he still gave her a big pinch on one arm, while raising his eyebrows at her and smiling.

 

"Ow!" She complained, as she saw him starting to walk away with his mother. Her mind became lost as a bizarre thought wandered in. ”If he really liked me he would turn to look at me, if...”

 

Rey found herself thinking about him with the spirit of a teen again, hoping for nothing more than the flick of his eyes at her. She knew it was idiotic, but her mind was crazy for him and she no longer knew how to tame it. Watching the boy leave with his back turned towards the illuminated huts she felt that her heart was left waiting.

 

She remained motionless, hoping he’d turn around again. She watched his and Leia’s shadows stretch away from the setting sun. They were nothing but small dots now, she could no longer see them clearly, but as they arrived in front of one of the huts the shorter of the two figures entered, while the taller one turned around and quickly and waved at her.

 

She could not see it but she knew that he must have been smiling...

 

***

 

The lesson passed quickly, time divided between rules of etiquette and ceremonial protocols. Rey did not pay attention to anything even though she knew that tomorrow would be a disaster because of it, but all she could think of was that he had resumed talking to her and somehow, they were getting along.

 

He was also being so different during the lessons, he was kind and gave her advice. It seemed that he already knew everything, every topic seemed little more than a review to him, meanwhile she didn’t understand a single thing and wondered why people had bothered to establish so many rules for being in company with each other. However, she had to acknowledge that she had spent most of her life alone in the desert where there where many things left unexplained to her.

 

For starters, she was left wondering why you could not drink broth directly from the bowl, or why someone had invented a curved knife only for consuming crustaceans despite the fact that food all ended up the same way, eaten. Her thoughts eventually converged onto one thing - the shape of Ben's full lips as he spoke to her. She could only think about her maddening desire to kiss them; the thought alone never failed to make her legs melt. She wondered if he were thinking the same thing.

 

These thoughts were far too much for one person to bear… But for now, she had to make due with watching him smile...

 

And he smiled at her even as he opened the door after dinner to let her enter his little hut. She had imagined it differently, but it was light and comfortable. Everything on his desk next to the bed was in order and carefully placed, as were his books. She picked up one book left on the desk and flipped through it. It was on the Force but it was written in a language she was unfamiliar with.

 

They reminded her of the books she had stolen from the tree-cave before the fire started. Perhaps Ben also found these ones on the island. She would have liked to ask him but suddenly he grabbed her by the arm and made her sit by the fire. He placed an electronic game controller in her hand and began to instruct her on how to use it.

 

First he introduced her to a first person shooter game. It was easy and she quickly pushed the keys randomly, making a few kills. This seemed to please him, and together they managed to win the first game.

 

After an hour he proposed a game that involved battling with unfamiliar spaceship models, and here the situation grew more complicated, as Rey had failed to properly listen to Ben’s instructions and mashing the buttons at random no longer seemed to be a viable tactic. It did, however, keep Ben laughing, which was the main thing Rey hoped for.

 

The hours passed by, perhaps too many now, and when they looked out of the window to see that all of the lights were off, they started to laugh. Ben wandered off to prepare some hot drinks and brought back a blanket to warm up with around the fire.

 

They drank happily, discovering that something new had grown between them. Rey looked at the scar on his face and wondered if she found herself in another life or in another dimension when the events that led her to create it had truly happened. It no longer seemed important now, because he was a different man. Perhaps she had forgotten that he still was an adult because of his boyish demeanor and even if it was not exactly what she expected - they were happy in the moment, and that was enough.

 

As they talked, Rey asked him about the books and he was happy to show them to her and explain the meaning of the symbols. She discovered that it was indeed another language, ancient and forgotten, but he had studied it with his uncle, and while he hardly remembered it, he knew just enough to make her understand some words and after a few minutes they find themselves talking about her broken lightsaber and he offered to help her.

 

Rey wanted to show it to him, it was in her hut but by now night had fallen, so he decided to accompany here there. They ran in the dark, getting lost among the rocks, past the beach, the sea was so calm that night that it seemed to sing to them, the twin moons are terse, so limpid and high in the sky that they looked like the faces of two lovers in each other’s company. Perhaps they consulted one another.

"Who knows what they are saying?" He said to her in a low voice as he took off his shoes.

 

She looked at him puzzled. "What are you doing? "

 

Rey's broken sword, Force, war, First Order or Resistance, where now only distant memories.

 

He laughed and continued to take off his clothes. "The sea has never been so nice, I want to take a bath." He undressed, dropping his underwear on the sand, gleaming in the night. He smiled and held out a hand.

 

Rey’s heart skipped a beat upon seeing Ben’s bare torso glowing under the moons light. She looked over to the breaking waves, tense and not sure what to say. "I can’t, I can’t swim," Rey said bitterly, but he smiled and continued to offer her his hand, so in the end she undressed too, feeling a bit bare in her undergarments. Ben’s eyes sparkled like the rippling sea as he grabbed her hand again and helped her to overcome her fear. Finally, Rey dived in between the waves, which appeared far more gentle now that she was in.

He held her hand and then lifted her up a bit further, to the point where she could not touch the bottom.

 

Rey looked at him, cocking her head, and as she wondered what they were going to do next, Ben continued to drag the two of them further out from the shore. Holding her by the hand, strong and stable and yet he still managed to cradle her from the waves, then as the water came to his shoulders he helped her put her feet down on a sand bar. Ben continued to look at her, as though he was still thinking about what to say.

 

Rey paused to look at the figure that stood before her: he was handsome, strong, had an enduring look, muscles sculpted through pain: who was this man who had brought her out into the water?

 

She decided to make a move to accompany her gaze, without holding back on her feelings for him, and so she mustered up the courage to caress him, placing her fingers across his hand and wrist. Ben’s eyes closed as though this simple touch were a tickle from all the stars of the sky. His expression changed. There was something new in him, the lines of his face drew a new shape not seen before, those of the lost man who had once called himself Kylo Ren.

 

Where had his Dark Side disappeared to when his eyes gleamed back at her?

The Twin moons must have been laughing at the doubt that shone on Ben’s face.

 

It was up to Rey to decide, if she should leave him at the shore or let herself drift in his arms… Ben’s eyes still questioned her and so in the end Rey decided to slip between his arms, there was no excuse to be made: he was her earth, night and stars.

 

And so, she took her barriers down, opened the dam to let the current flow, closing the void between them and encouraging him kiss her on the lips.

 

He kissed her slowly and she almost felt like he had missed her, her body felt weightless in the water and in the embrace of his arms. His mouth was sweet and his lips were gentle as they made space between hers, alternating kisses and smiles.

 

His hands were big and they surround her completely but they were also so curious that they moved around a little everywhere, to the back of her head, in the folds of her nape or just under her breasts,…he avoided those carefully not wanting to dare further…

 

A little reassuringly she grabbed his hand and brought it to where she wanted them to go. He felt stupefied, hid breath cut out as he realized what she was asking for. He interrupted his kiss, waiting for her to search for him further. Rey kissed him on the neck, then on his lips again, and pushed his hand further so to remove the fabric the still covered her, letting it sink into the sea.

 

They stopped to look at each other they were like two planets suspended in the same orbit. They shone little before their flames ignited and meet.

 

The moons where lowering just on the edge of the horizon. Their silver reflections shattered over the waves in every direction, it shone on their salty and wet bodies, shone their eyes that where swollen with tears and she could taste his salty smell while kissing his neck that he offered to her panting as if he had been breathless his whole life and every breath was now choked or lost they could feel another void begin to open up and sway within them, recalling attention to more distant places that no one spoke of: it was their kisses that led them there, they knew the way.

 

“Ben?” She said, interrupting. He looked up and let their energies align like those of the sister moon that glowed at them, though the Force perhaps; but their thoughts melted together again like when she was in the interrogation room and whatever he thought flowed freely to her mind. Like when the held their hand for the first time, but now there was no one who could stop them this time.

 

Rey could see once more that Dark man that had kidnapped her, chased her, threatened her and then finally saved her, the very same one had gone hunting for her to take her back, until this little island.

The very same island that now was illuminated by the twin moons that where mocking them, they let all the memories flow back into Ben, of all the times she had, hit him, betrayed him or left him alone, when in reality all she wanted was to stay with him.

 

“Ben?” She repeated. “Who are you now?” He interrupted her by cupping her face. “I am the man who loves you…” He answered softly, letting the moons brighten his eyes “I am the darkness that lets the stars glow, who are you going to be?”

 

Rey was motionless, a thousand questions crossed though her mind, who did she want to be? A lone woman? A lover? A companion? A mother? A Jedi? Or none of the things that she felt she had been up until now.

 

The twin moons where waiting for an answer.

 

Ben’s heart skipped a beat as all of his past lives shattered behind him.

 

Finally, she answered, grabbing him by the shoulders to get closer to his lips. “There is nothing I want to be more that be the woman who loves you.”

 

The waves picked up and they were forced to return to the shore, close enough to be still enveloped by the sea but close enough to allow her to touch the bottom while she kept another point of contact by wrapping her hands on his muscular chest. She noticed that he was trembling every time she moved her fingers over him, he stopped to look at her while he was twisting his tongue on her breast suckling her nipples that were at the swaying water's edge.

 

She moaned and felt the tide open her up to her core and called for his name. And every call for him was a step further into the abyss, because he could not resist his urges of a male being as the darkness claimed her light. At the same time, he could not deny who he was as the love melted away his Dark side.

He had to choose, and he choose to just be Ben.

 

Rey could feel his thoughts across the Force bond, there was nothing left to ask for questions could be left for tomorrow.

 

He put his hands over her thighs, sinking his fingers into the fabric of her underwear while their tongues first chased each other in his mouth, then into hers.

 

She opened her legs slightly and he feared that perhaps things were going too fast and that she might have regrets later, so he stopped to ask for her if this was truly what she wanted.

 

He looked at her and saw a tear fall, but he collected it before it sank into the sea and kissed her eyes as if they were shining gems, only to resume whispering her name followed by a few simple words that reflected in the light of the moons. Moons that knew the language of love, moons that seemed to understand the words and repeated them to infinity until they let them drop to the world below them and made them understandable again.

 

"I love you." Ben said it softly, but it was as if he were saying it from inside her heart.

 

And there was nothing more to say, she grabbed his hand and pushed it into her core and he willingly sank his finger inside her, listening to her moans like they were sweet music, and he bent over and every time she swayed nearing her threshold, he moved up and down with the rhythm of the sea and continued to call her name in a soft voice. He called to her, quietly moaned her name and whispered to her in her ear until she felt overcome with desire and the need for release.

 

Her name began to merge with the silence, her heart beat and the pulsations of her stomach, as he told her how beautiful she was and how much he needed to have her near and if that was not enough, he sank another finger into her in between her moans and he felt her legs and lips tighten around him, la petite mort, between his breaths, her teeth, touching tongues, gathering the signs and the beats of their love. He squeezed her breasts and felt his length push against the fabric of his underwear, he wanted her to free him from this pain that made him shudder in search of some friction, some pushback. A grinding that became more and more audacious as she bit his lips and told him that she loved him and wanted him by stealing layers of his life and kisses of dew.

 

The scent of island’s forests wafted over the sea, the currents changed direction and the scent of the hedges did not seem a distant place anymore but was instead so intoxicating as to make him feel like a seed and she his earth, to be washed, soaked, penetrated by his roots, so he accelerated the rhythm of his fingers and felt her cling to his neck as if she were falling and gasping and then, still moaning, she leant on his shoulder and came while whispering his name between smiles and breaths, her face nuzzled into his wet hair.

 

He had never felt wanted in that way. Having managed to pleasure her he left full, so full of his desire that he came as well. His seed slipping through the sea, while he was listening to his lover whimper around his fingers. He did not know how much this could make him feel like a man.

 

Ben looked at her and she smiled back at him, tired. He wrapped her in his arms and carried her back to his hut. He would take care of her. It didn’t matter to him how little they knew each other, if he did not fully remember who he was or what his past was: now they were together, and there was little else that mattered. They looked into each other’s eyes happily, and for at least a moment they were no longer alone.

 

 

_End First part_

 

**Really thanks to** [ ](http://mrsmancuspia.tumblr.com/) **@** [ **spiegatrixlestrange** ](https://spiegatrixlestrange.tumblr.com/post/179443250918/what-are-your-thoughts-on-speculation-that-keri) **for this Beautiful image. It’s so lovely !**

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Writer corner:
> 
> Please feed the inspiration fairy with a kudos or comment.  
> If you want to read this story in Italian and English click here. https://efpfanfic.net/viewstory.php?sid=3816502
> 
> *****  
> Each chapter was written by: @shaara-2 (Zag_Star on Ao3)  
> Beta and translator: @sourdoughserenity, @giostyle-inspo.  
> Other Help: @mrsockman  
> Really Thank you to @mrsmancuspia and @spiegatrixlestrange for your wonderful image and for helping me in all possible ways.  
> Star Wars arrives from far, far distant galaxy. Reylo unites us.

**Author's Note:**

> Each chapter was written by: @shaara-2 (Zag_Star on Ao3)  
> Beta and translator: @sourdoughserenity, @giostyle-inspo.  
> Other Help: @mrsockman  
> Really Thank you to @mrsmancuspia and @spiegatrixlestrange for your wonderful image and for helping me in all possible ways.  
> Star Wars arrives from far, far distant galaxy. Reylo unites us.


End file.
